


walk a mile

by dereviannaya



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), and yes im american dont @ me, but not a lot of angst bc im a pussy, i wrote the first two chapters like a year ago so don't judge it too hard pls, quarantine is really getting to me huh, so basically it's a bodyswap, takes place at the end of 6th year, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense but ignore that, there will be all the tropes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-02-23 14:14:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 21,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23712787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dereviannaya/pseuds/dereviannaya
Summary: Maybe (just maybe) Professor Slughorn shouldn't be assigning complicated potions to be brewed by irresponsible seventeen-year-olds outside of his supervision. And maybe (just maybe) they shouldn't be drinking their unfinished concoctions on a dare. But Lily Evans probably should've thought of that before she woke up in the Boys' Dormitory.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Marlene McKinnon/Dorcas Meadowes
Comments: 19
Kudos: 35





	1. leeches

**Author's Note:**

> heyyyy welcome to my first hp fic on ao3 (we don't speak of fanfiction.net) it's a wip and kinda weird but i hope y'all enjoy the chaos i wrote a year ago

Lily Evans is a bright witch. At least that’s what all of her professors like to say about her, though she doesn’t feel very bright as she practically sprints to Potions, desperately attempting to keep her balance as she nearly trips over her own feet. Exams are coming up, and the thought of taking the N.E.W.T.s next year makes her more nervous than she’d like to admit, even if they are a year away. Her upcoming Transfiguration exam worries her the most at the moment, the A she got on her last essay looming over her. Acceptable. Lily Evans refuses to just be _a_ _ cceptable _ . Lily bumps into a girl clad in green and silver—a third or fourth year, by the looks of it—and doesn’t miss the way she mutters  _ mudblood _ as she passes. Lily quickens her pace, not paying the Slytherin any attention and trying to ignore the way her heart’s beating twice as fast, as if it’s expecting danger.  _ No _ , Lily thinks as she enters the Potions classroom,  _ I won’t be anything short of extraordinary _ .

Lily sits down in her usual seat at the front of the classroom, next to Dorcas, who’s too engrossed in her copy of the  _ Daily Prophet _ to say hello in the midst of the usual chatter of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. Lily knows that she should probably take a look at the  _ Prophet _ , but she can’t bring herself to ask Dorcas, who frowns thoughtfully at the front page. Lily doesn’t fancy adding whatever it is that the Death Eaters did now to her stress, so she sits down wordlessly beside her friend, allowing herself some blissful ignorance. Professor Slughorn claps his hands with a suspiciously cheery glint in his eye, snapping Lily back to the present and quieting the class.

“Today,” Slughorn says, with too much enthusiasm, “we will begin a complete project that will require three days to complete. You will be working with a randomly-assigned partner for this brew.”

The entire class, already paired off at tables of two, seems off-put by this announcement, and Lily finds herself with one wish. She crosses her fingers and silently prays to whatever deity it is that decides these matters that her partner won’t be James Potter.  _ Anyone but Potter _ .

Slughorn walks through the rows of tables, unfazed by his students’ obvious irritation, tapping tables with his wand as he announces the partnership that’s to sit there. Lily glances across the classroom, taking in the sight of an unpartnered James Potter, ruffling his own hair with that irritating smirk on his face.  _ Please, Slughorn, have mercy. Not Potter. _

“Lily Evans…” Slughorn says loudly, reading from a piece of parchment that will ultimately decide her fate with an indecipherable smile on his face.  _ Come on, Slug, do something right for once. Not Potter. Not- _

“And Sirius Black.”

Lily almost jumps for joy before she processes whose name has actually come out of the professor’s mouth, and her momentary happiness is replaced with dread as she gathers her books and crosses the room to sit next to Sirius Black, who gives her a lopsided grin. She scoffs.

“Merlin, Evans, no need to be rude- I thought we were friends,” Black says.

“Sure, we’re best mates,” Lily deadpans, “chums, if you will.” Black rolls his eyes and brings his attention back to Slughorn, who’s writing on the chalkboard and explaining the properties of a Polyjuice Potion. Lily thinks it isn’t a very good idea to have people like the self-proclaimed  _ Marauders _ brew the Polyjuice Potion, but Slughorn explains that they’ll be making a simplified and nonfunctional version of the potion as he writes the ingredients for the first part of Polyjuice on the board.

Lily stands up and joins the rest of the class as they scramble to the cupboards, retrieving the ingredients, but Black doesn’t seem to care enough to stand up and help her, watching her from his seat. She gathers the ingredients, already exasperated, and drops them on their shared table as Slughorn speaks again.

“Use book page 187 to brew the first part of the potion. You are free to begin.” Lily sits down and flips through the pages until she reaches  _ 187 _ as Sirius Black watches her, unmoving.

“Are you going to open your book, or do I have to do that too?” Lily asks irritably, wondering if she’ll end up brewing the potion herself. Sirius nods towards her open textbook.

“Won’t you share, Lilyflower?” Lily raises her eyebrow at the nickname.

“Are… you trying to hit on me?” She asks slowly. Black practically recoils.

“What? No! You belong to Prongs,” he tells her, and Lily knows by now that “Prongs” means Potter.

“I  _ belong _ to him?” She repeats, feeling her face burn up when Black shrugs, as if he can’t think of anything wrong with his statement.

“Well, Prongs told practically all of Gryffindor not to lay a finger on-”

“Oh, I’ll show him!”

=|=

“Miss Evans, I’m afraid that putting leeches down the back of Mr. Potter’s robes isn’t an act that can go without punishment.”

“I apologize, Professor,” Lily says, glancing around the now-empty Potions room nervously and wondering how many detentions are in store for her.

“But, you are, of course, a very clever girl, and I trust that this won’t happen again, so I’ll take ten points from Gryffindor and hope to see better behavior in class on Monday,” Lily tries not to look too pleased at Slughorn’s obvious favoritism, “unfortunately, the first part of your potion has yet to be completed, so you will have to finish it for homework tonight.”  _ Incomplete _ is an understatement—they barely got past the first step of the mock Polyjuice potion. Lily sighs.

“Of course, Professor. Thank you for being so understanding.”

“Well, off you go, then!” Slughorn waves Lily away with his hand, and she hurries out of the classroom, finding Sirius Black waiting in the dimly-lit corridor like Slughorn had told him, leaning casually against a stone wall as if he owns the place.

“Got your first detention tonight, Evans?” He asks, and Lily doesn’t bother telling him that this is far from her first detention.

“Just lost ten points,” Lily informs Black, who grumbles something about the Slug Club, “but we’ll have to finish the first part of the potion tonight, and I expect you to actually help this time.”

“In case you forgot,  _ I’m _ not the one stuffing leeches down people’s robes, Evans,” Black says, but Lily ignores him.

“Where do you want to meet?” She asks.

“My dorm at eight?” Black offers, and Lily narrows her eyes at him. Technically, girls are allowed up the stairs to the boys’ dorms, but no one actually goes up there unless it’s to shag. Lily briefly wonders if Potter somehow orchestrated this arrangement before nodding. Black winks at her, and she hurries in the direction of Gryffindor Tower, eager to get as far away from the dungeons as possible.


	2. a dare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily Evans has a potion to brew. And a rather difficult partner to brew it with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welcome back folks..... hope you like chapter 2:)

Eight o’clock rolls around as she’s working on translating Ancient Runes in her dorm, and Mary MacDonald lifts her arm at the sound of Lily’s alarm, shaking it so her watch makes clinking noises against her wrist. Lily smiles at the watch—it’s nice to see something so familiar in the wizarding world. It’s just an ordinary watch, without any complicated charms that show her lunar cycles or constellations; so simply  _ muggle _ . Mary rarely wears it outside of the dorm. Lily drops her translations and gathers her book and ingredients, hauling them all the way up to the boys’ dorms until she arrives at the Sixth Years’ door. She knocks hurriedly when she sees a seventh year give her a knowing wink, and is relieved when Black opens the door.

“I hope you have your cauldron up here, because there’s no way in hell I’m getting mine,” she says, pushing past him and into the dormitory. It’s a bit of a mess; clothes and parchment are strewn across the room and Lily wrinkles her nose at the distinct smell of dungbombs lingering in the air, “Merlin, how can you stand to- is that a  _ rat _ ?” Lily jumps when she sees it sitting on one of the beds, and she swears it’s staring at her with its beady eyes. She fumbles for her wand, but Black snaps his head towards the bed and barks out a laugh, eyes wide.

“No need for wands, Evans!” He says quickly, stepping towards the door and opening it a crack, “It doesn’t bite,  _ does it _ ?” For a moment, Lily thinks he’s talking to the rat, but it scurries out of the room before he can continue his thought and he turns to her, slamming the door closed. Before Lily can tell him off or set her books down, she notices the sound of running water from what must be the loo, and wonders if this really is a set-up to get her into Potter’s dorm. The sound stops suddenly and Lily raises her eyebrows at Black.

“Oh, that’s-”

The bathroom door opens and it’s not Potter that comes out, but Remus Lupin. He’s only wearing a towel around his waist and Lily almost gasps when she sees the scars covering his body, looking as if he’s been attacked by a wild animal with claws. She’s seen the scars on his face, but the claw marks that litter his chest look much worse, like he’s been  _ mauled _ , and Lily almost starts speculating about what did this when she notices how Remus’ face has turned all red.

“Sorry!” She cries out, turning around even though she’s already seen him.

“Um… Sirius, what is Lily doing here?” Remus asks from behind her.

“Oh, she’s working on the Potions shite with me, thanks to the infamous leeches stunt,” Black says casually, “forgot you were in the shower, sorry.” Lily hears Remus sigh and mutter something under his breath; Lily hears some rustling before the door slams. She sits down on the floor in the middle of the room, setting her stuff down unceremoniously. She considers asking Sirius about the scars for a moment, but decides against it, though she can’t get the image out of her mind.

“Where’s your cauldron?” She asks instead, and Black crosses the room, bending over to look under one of the beds.

“Ah, there it is!” He pulls out a dusty brass cauldron; seemingly in perfect condition, but completely untouched. It’s got some sort of symbol engraved on it, like a crest, with something French written under it.

“Do you not bring your own cauldron to class, Black?” Lily asks, and he just shrugs in reply, pulling it towards where she’s sitting on the floor. The bathroom door opens as Lily turns her textbook to page 187, and Remus steps out, fully clothed now.

“I’ll be in the common room if you need me,” he says to Sirius, who salutes him half-heartedly, “ta, Lily.” Lily waves without meeting his eye and he leaves, closing the dorm’s door behind him. Lily tosses her bag of ingredients at Black as she reads her page of the textbook.

“Add three measures of fluxweed to the cauldron,” she looks up to find Black hastily doing as instructed and nods, “now add two bundles of knotgrass…” she waits for his noise of affirmation before continuing, “and stir two times, clockwise.” She watches out of the corner of her eye as Black stirs the cauldron lazily.

“Then what?” He’s staring longingly at the door, the boredom evident in his tone.

“Usually, we’d wait for sixty minutes, but Slughorn cut it down to thirty for the assignment,” Lily tells him, and he groans.

“What’re we supposed to do for half an hour?”

“Well, we can read the chapter Slughorn assigned, for a start,” Lily suggests, but that idea doesn’t seem to please Black, who groans even louder, as if it’ll make the time go by faster. Lily ignores him and turns to chapter 14,  _ The Properties of Polyjuice _ . The chapter’s rather dense, but comprehensible after her second read, and Polyjuice is a fascinating potion, so the time goes by relatively quickly.

_...Polyjuice is a potion that allows one to take on the appearance of another human for no longer than- _

“Evans, it’s been thirty minutes,” Lily snaps her head up to find Sirius watching her, his leg bouncing impatiently. Would it kill him to get his own book out and do something himself for once? Lily flips back to page 187.

“Right, we need to add four leeches to the cauldron.” Before Lily can reach for her ingredient bag, Black snatches up her jar of leeches.

“I’ll do that, seeing as you can’t be trusted with the leeches,” he says cheerily, dropping them in one by one as Lily pulls her mortar and pestle out of her bag, as well as a container of lacewing flies.

“Very funny,” she mutters, starting to crush the flies into a fine powder, “we need to add two measures of the crushed flies- do you have a scale?” Black doesn’t answer her question, grabbing her mortar and carelessly tipping the contents of it into the cauldron. Lily opens her mouth to tell him off but he beats her to it.

“Relax, Evans, it’s not supposed to be functional anyway. He’ll only be grading on appearance, and an extra half a measure won’t make any difference,” Black says off-handedly, not paying attention to Lily as she rolls her eyes. At least it won’t be  _ her _ dormitory exploding once Black buggers up the stupid potion.

“Fine, heat it at a low temperature for thirty seconds,” she says, and he flicks his wand, muttering a heating charm, leaning over the cauldron so that his long hair dips into the brown concoction.

“For the love of God, Sirius, will you pull back your hair? You’re going to contaminate the potion.” Sirius jumps back when he notices what’s happened to his hair, fussing over it immediately.

“Shit, it’s gonna burn off, isn’t it? All these years, and I’m about to be scalped!” Sirius Black is nothing if not dramatic, and Lily struggles to hold in her laughter at his panic.

“Your precious hair will be fine,” she tells him, “the potion doesn’t do anything unless you ingest it.”

“Well, in that case…” He’s got a look in his eye that makes Lily nervous—it’s what he and Potter look like right before a Slytherin starts screaming in the Great Hall, or something explodes, “I dare you to drink the potion.” Lily blinks at him as he waves his wand at the potion, ending his heating spell far too early.

“ _ Now _ ?”

“No, next Tuesday.” His smirk is unbearable and the potion looks absolutely revolting, but Lily isn’t in Gryffindor for nothing.

“Alright,” she says, “but I don’t drink alone.” Black’s smirk is immediately wiped off his face, but he’s also a Gryffindor. There’s a moment of silence.

“I’ll get the goblets.”

Lily’s starting to regret her decision when Sirius returns from the loo holding two silver goblets, but she can’t back down, and she knows he won’t. He hands a goblet to her and Lily feels her eyes start to water as she gets closer to the cauldron. The smell is horrendous, like some kind of mix between cabbage and raw fish, if that’s even possible, and Lily wipes at her eyes, flicking an eyelash into the concoction by accident. She looks away, wrinkling her nose, as they dip their goblets into the cauldron simultaneously. She settles on half a goblet’s worth and pulls it out, eyeing it warily. Black also has his doubts, judging by the sheer horror in his eyes, but he doesn’t say anything. Lily tries to swirl it around like wine, but it has a strange, mud-like consistency and stays put.

“Not backing out, are you, Evans?” Lily has a feeling that he wants her to say yes and call the whole thing off.

“Not a chance,” she clinks her goblet against his, “cheers!”

Before she can think harder on the matter, she tilts her head back and closes her eyes, knocking back the drink. As chunks slide down her throat, she remembers that there are flies and leeches in the potion, and it takes all of her willpower not to puke. She doesn’t stop until the goblet is empty, slamming it down on the floor at the same time as Black, whose face has turned a sickly shade of green.

“I’m gonna be sick,” he says, before promptly gagging. Incredibly, they both manage to keep the potion down, but Lily promises herself that she’ll never do this again.

“This is your fault,” she tells him, “anyway, the first part’s over with, so I think I’ll be going before you ruin my shoes.” Lily gathers up her materials and stands up. Black flips her off as she leaves, but she finds herself chuckling as the door shuts with a  _ thud _ .

Lily ends up calling it an early night, as the sudden urge to vomit every few minutes tends to have a negative effect on one’s rune-translation skills. She changes out of her uniform and lets Marlene McKinnon pull her hair into a plait, but she’s out the moment her head hits the pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooooooh wonder what will happen next i bet you can't guess like at all,, ig you'll just have to wait till next week....


	3. deep shit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something curious happens to Lily the following morning...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo happy may 2nd! this chapter's a bit longer, so i hope y'all are cool w/ that.....

The sunlight streaming in through the windows assaults Lily’s eyes before she can open them, and even as she tries to turn over in her bed she knows that going back to sleep is a lost cause. She simply groans and props herself up on her elbows, squinting at the open window that’s across from her bed. She could’ve sworn that she’d closed her curtains before going to bed last night, but here they are, completely open. Lily sighs, resigning herself to her fate as she leans over her bed, looking for  _ The Standard Book of Spells Grade 6 _ . She has double Charms in the morning, Study of Ancient Runes, and then Defense in the afternoon before her precious Friday evening free period. None of her dormmates have that period free, so she has time for some much-needed blissful silence before the weekend. Lily finds the Charms textbook, but before she can look for  _ Advanced Rune Translation _ , she finds her trunk open, with her robes spilling out onto the floor under her bed. Except, those aren’t her robes. Or her trunk.

Lily rubs her eyes as she throws the covers off of her bed, making her way towards the loo. When she enters, she finds herself face to face with a mirror. She has to throw a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming as she takes in the grey eyes, long black hair, and pale skin.

Blinking at her from the mirror is  _ Sirius Black _ .

Before she can close her eyes and count to three, the bathroom door swings open and the unmistakable face of James Potter appears in the mirror behind Sirius Black.

_ This isn’t real. This is a dream. _

“Morning, Padfoot,” Potter says through a yawn. Lily clears her throat, and sees Black do the same in the mirror.

“I’m not Sirius.” She tells him, and Potter gives her a funny look.

“You usually aren’t serious, mate- but this is no time for jokes. How’s my hair?” Potter asks, brushing his fingers through his rat’s nest.

“Absolutely atrocious,” Lily mutters, momentarily forgetting her plight, and he looks affronted. Potter shoves her arm, rolling his eyes.

“Like your mop is any better.” Lily takes a deep breath.

“Look, this is going to sound mental, but-”

“Are you two snogging in there?” Remus Lupin’s head pops into the bathroom. His hair is sticking up in the back instead of being neatly combed like it usually is. “Don’t tell me you’re doing your bloody hair. I’d like to brush my teeth sometime this morning.” Potter shrugs at him, his hands still in his hair.

“Should’ve made an appointment, Moony.” Remus groans and looks like he’s about to reply, but Lily pushes past him back into the dorm.

“Pads?” Peter Pettigrew is rubbing his eyes, sat on the edge of his bed. Lily doesn’t acknowledge him, starting towards the door. “Padfoot, don’t you want to put on a shirt?” Lily grabs the handle, thinking that perhaps if she leaves the room she’ll find herself back in her own dorm, asleep in her bed. “Suit yourself.” Peter mumbles as she swings open the door and steps out. She closes her eyes for a moment and opens them again. No change. Shakily, she walks past the other dorms and starts down the staircase until she finds herself in the common room. She glances around, and her eyes fall on none other than, well, Lily Evans, reading a book in front of the fire, relaxed on an armchair. Lily storms over to the armchair, grabbing the book (which had been upside down) and snapping it shut. Her own face looks back at her pleasantly.

“Oh, good morning, what can I do for you?” Lily grabs the collar of her own pajamas and pulls her body up from the armchair. A second year looks up at them from one of the tables, and Lily shoots a glare his way, which causes him to run off to the boys’ staircase, leaving them alone in the common room.

“What did you  _ do _ ?” She hisses. “If this is some kind of prank, I swear to-”

“No need to swear, Evans—I didn’t do this.” Lily falters, letting go of the shirt.

“Then what’s happening?”

“Well, seeing as I woke up with red hair and tits this morning… It appears that we have switched bodies.” Lily stares at her own face for a moment, before sighing heavily.

“Is this even possible?”

“You tell me—you’re supposed to be the smart one.” It’s clear that Sirius doesn’t seem to have a clue as to what’s going on, so Lily starts to wrack her mind for an explanation. It dawns on her just as a third year is coming down the girls’ staircase. Lily grabs the sleeve of her own pajamas and pulls Sirius aside to the corner of the common room.

“The potion! It was the sodding potion, wasn’t it?” Lily says in a hushed voice, and Sirius’ face—well,  _ her _ face—lights up with realization.

“I didn’t even think of that!” He exclaims, and Lily’s head finally wraps itself around the situation, though it doesn’t make her feel any better.

“The potion caused us to somehow switch bodies,” She says, mostly to herself, but Sirius nods and Lily starts to formulate a plan, “we have to tell McGonagall.” Sirius shakes his head immediately, almost like a dog, and Lily’s red hair flies in a hundred different directions at the movement.

“Bad plan-  _ awful _ plan. Minnie will expel me! Do you know how many priors I have?” Lily remembers how Sirius Black got inexplicably kicked off of the Quidditch team earlier this year, but doesn’t bother asking about it.

“Since when do you care about getting in trouble?”

“This isn’t a prank, Evans; we’re not just going to get a detention and points taken from Gryffindor, especially not with my history.” Lily puts her hands on her hips.

“Maybe you should’ve thought about that before daring me to drink it!” Before Sirius can defend himself, Lily makes a decision. “Fine. I’ll tell her myself. I don’t need your permission.” That’s when the corner of Sirius’ mouth curls upwards, and Lily hates the way her face looks when he smiles like that.

“You think Minnie will believe you?”

“Of course she will, I’m a Prefect!” Sirius frowns, looking thoughtful.

“Professor McGonagall,” he says matter-of-factly, mimicking Lily’s Prefect voice far too accurately, “I don’t know what he’s talking about! It’s Sirius Black, for all we know this is one of his pranks. Five points from Gryffindor!” Lily gapes at him.

“You  _ wouldn’t _ .” Lily stares at her own face grinning at her.

“Wouldn’t I?” Lily wants to smack that stupid smirk off of his face, but it’s  _ her _ face, and— _ Merlin _ this is confusing. “Look, Evans, if it’s some strange side effect of Polyjuice then we’ll be back to normal within the hour. If not…” He trails off, “well, we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.”

“That’s not-” Lily sighs, “what about our friends?”

“You can’t tell them,” Sirius says quickly, “if Moony finds out, he’ll go straight to Dumbles like the bloody Prefect he is. If this,” he gestures between the two of them, “isn’t over by lunch, we can meet back here. I have a free period after lunch.” Lily shakes her head.

“You mean  _ I _ have a free period.  _ You _ have Study of Ancient Runes with Professor Babbling, Lily Evans.” She informs him, and Sirius groans.

“Alright, we’ll meet at lunch. Just-”

“OI, PADFOOT!” Sirius looks up at the boys’ staircase, but Potter isn’t looking at him. Lily starts, realizing that he’s calling her, and finds that Potter’s eyes are flickering between the two, his brow furrowed in confusion.

“What do you want?” Lily says, and Potter looks taken aback. Lily feels something that must be Sirius’ elbow jab her in the side. “I mean, what’s up, er- mate?” The words feel awkward in her mouth, and they must sound just as bad since Lily hears Sirius sigh loudly behind her.

“If you don’t get changed soon, we’re going to breakfast without you.” Potter turns his attention to Sirius, and runs a hand through his hair, “Good morning, Evans!” Lily fights the urge to scoff, and to her delight, she hears Sirius do it for her.

“Morning, Pr-Potter,” he says disinterestedly, and Potter smiles far too wide. Lily turns back to Sirius.

“Guess we’re changing?” She mutters.

“I’m not shy, Evans,” Sirius says under his breath, “are you?” Lily rolls her eyes.

“This is going to be a long day,” she mumbles, before following Potter back up the boys’ stairs.

Lily spends far too long in the loo, trying to move past the awkwardness of the situation as she stares down blankly at Sirius’ school robes. She had never planned on seeing Sirius Black in the nude, but alas, this seems to be the unfortunate side effect of becoming Sirius Black. It’s only after the third time that Potter pounds on the bathroom door that she sucks it up and changes as quickly as possible, stepping out of the loo and squirming when Potter throws an arm around her. She walks with him and Peter Pettigrew and is forced to listen to Potter’s unending rambling about professional Quidditch throughout the journey to the Great Hall. When they sit down at the Gryffindor table for breakfast, Lily stares wistfully at Sirius in her body, chatting away to her friends without a care in the world.

“You lookin’ at Evans?” Peter asks, a buttered roll in his mouth. Remus, who’d gotten to breakfast early and is done eating, heaves a sigh from beside her.

“I hope not,” he mutters as Potter squints at her.

“Pads?” Potter says quietly, looking between her and her body at the other side of the table. “Is-”

“Just spacing out, James- what were you saying about Puddlemere United?” Potter casts her body one last glance before launching into another passionate tirade, while Remus eyes her suspiciously.

At the end of breakfast, Remus hurriedly tells Peter and Potter that he’ll catch up to them before grabbing Lily’s arm and looking her straight in the eyes knowingly. She tries to avoid his intense gaze, but he’s leaning in far too close and watching her with far too much concentration.

“Sirius Black, you better answer this honestly,” he says lowly, before looking around furtively to make sure that Potter and Peter are gone, “did something  _ happen _ between you and Lily in the dormitory last night?” Lily feels a sudden wave of panic and wonders how he can possibly know about the potion. She tries to look for Sirius, but he’s long gone—in fact, most of the Gryffindor table is empty. She decides to play dumb.

“What do you mean?” She asks, hoping she sounds nonchalant. Remus leans in closer, lowering his voice until it’s barely above a whisper.

“If you…  _ snogged _ her, or something, you have to tell Prongs at some point, you know how he-”

“ _ What _ ?” Lily jumps up to her feet, almost knocking her chair over in her hurry, “Are you  _ mad _ ? Why would I do- with hi- her? Get your mind out of the damn gutter, Remus!” She exclaims, crossing her arms. Remus throws his hands up in surrender, wide-eyed.

“Sorry, mate, just… making sure- the way you were looking at her earlier-”

“I wasn’t looking at her! I was looking at…” she thinks for a moment, “Dorcas Meadowes. I was looking at Dorcas Meadowes.” Lily finishes triumphantly, but Remus doesn’t look convinced.

“Dorcas Meadowes,” he echoes, “you fancy… Dorcas Meadowes?” Lily doesn’t want to dig herself into a deeper hole, so she waves her hand in a vague gesture.

“She’s fit,” she says casually (or as casually as she can).

“You know she’s…” Remus shakes his head to himself, “let’s go to Charms.”

Glad to have Remus off her scent, Lily gathers her textbooks and walks to Flitwick’s room with him, listening to him talk about a run-in he apparently had with Filch a couple days ago while patrolling. It’s strange to hear him talk for so long without any kind of interruption, and Lily wonders if he’s always this talkative when she’s not around.

Charms, despite being one of her best classes, is a total disaster. They’re supposed to be reviewing the freezing and heating charms nonverbally, but Lily keeps getting distracted, and Peter Pettigrew keeps laughing at her when she messes up, which is anything but encouraging, so she ends up freezing his mouth shut by accident. Potter, who has irritatingly executed the spell perfectly, peels over in laughter before being ordered to escort Peter to the Hospital Wing by Flitwick, who gives Lily a disapproving look as Potter leads the shorter boy out of the room. Sirius stares at her in shock from across the room, but Lily looks away when she feels Remus’ eyes boring into her and starts to work on the heating charm.

Peter is thawed by lunch, but Lily doesn’t have time to worry about that when she realizes that Double Charms has come and gone and she is still in the body of Sirius Black, who grabs her by the back of her robes before she can enter the Great Hall and hisses “ _ common room in five _ ” before disappearing up a moving staircase.

When Lily enters the common room (which is miraculously empty, save for her and Sirius), Sirius is pacing, pushing his red hair out of his face hastily with every other step. He stops when he sees her, and crosses his arms in a scarily Lily-like way.

“Took you long enough,” he huffs.

“I got here in four minutes!” Lily protests, but he shakes his head at her.

“If you’re early, you’re on time, if you’re on time, you’re late-”

“I’m early!”

“We don’t have time to go over technicalities, Evans. We have an issue on our hands,” Sirius says gravely, “and we can’t tell anyone. And we have to fix it  _ quickly _ .”

“How do you propose we do that?” Lily asks, already annoyed by his tendency to state the obvious. Sirius goes silent for a moment, in a way that suggests that he hasn’t thought that part of his plan through yet, before his face lights up suddenly.

“Hit the books, Evans!” He exclaims, looking very pleased with himself.

“Excuse me?”

“Go to the library! That’s what you’re good at, innit?” Lily blinks slowly.

“You think I just… read books, all the time?” She asks, and his smile falters.

“Well… don’t you?” He looks like she’s shattered the big cartoon light bulb above his head with a hammer.

“I do other things, you know! I’m not just-  _ book girl _ !” Lily feels her face heat up with irritation, but Sirius speaks before she can yell at him.

“Alright, alright, I get it! We can go together,” he offers, and she’s about to agree to his plan before she remembers something.

“We can’t,” she tells him, “it’ll look strange- we’ve never studied together and we rarely talk, and I’m pretty sure Remus thinks we’re shagging, anyway, so-”

“Remus thinks we’re  _ what _ ?” Lily’s never seen her own face look so horrified, and she isn’t sure if Sirius is truly as disgusted with the idea as he looks or if he just has a flair for dramatics.

“I told him we weren’t!” She says quickly, but he’s still staring at her in disbelief, looking like he’s completely shut down.

“Merlin, give me strength,” he mutters to himself, a hand over his heart, “I need a break- I’m going to the library, Evans. I’ll see you in  _ Defense _ .”

“You know, if we just  _ tell _ McGonagall-”

“We can’t!” Sirius interrupts, “We don’t even know what we’ve gotten ourselves into- for all we know, this could be  _ dark magic _ , and I’m not planning on going to prison, Evans.  _ Ever _ .” Lily tries to think of a retort, but ends up sighing, feeling suddenly tired.

“Fine. You go during lunch and I’ll go during your free period. Don’t forget that you have Runes in classroom 6A after lunch—and  _ yes _ , you have to go, and take notes, please, I don’t want to fail.” Sirius mutters something under his breath, but leaves without arguing with her, half-heartedly wishing her luck.

=|=

Lily finishes lunch quickly, having no desire to sit with Potter and talk about Quidditch (seriously, is that  _ all _ he talks about?), and starts her Charms homework early in the common room. When lunch ends, she puts her parchment away and heads downstairs to the library, but not before stopping by the Ancient Runes classroom to make sure that Sirius actually showed up. To her surprise, her own red hair can be seen from the half-opened door, and Sirius appears to be scribbling something on a piece of parchment diligently.

Lily arrives at a nearly empty library and gets to work immediately, heading straight towards the Potions section and searching for anything body-switching related. After finding nothing about the topic, she resigns herself to flicking through countless leather-bound books about general potions. She gets impatient after around twenty minutes, and desperate after ten more. Finally, she slams  _ A Guide to Obscure Potions and Elixirs _ closed and casts a momentary glance at Madam Pince, who seems to be preoccupied with scolding a couple first years for whispering too loud. Lily reaches into her bag and pulls out a piece of spare parchment and a quill, trying not to look suspicious (which is difficult in Sirius Black’s body). She covers the parchment with her forearm, writing as discreetly as possible and keeping an eye on Madam Pince as she crafts her note in green ink.

_ Sirius Black has been given permission by Professor McGonagall to research Transfiguration in the Restricted Section. _

_ Minerva McGonagall _

When Madam Pince sees the note, she doesn’t look entirely convinced, but she gets distracted by a Hufflepuff eating cauldron cakes and storms off to shout at him, leaving Lily to sneak into the Restricted Section unnoticed.

She surprises herself at how quickly she finds what she’s looking for- it only takes her about two minutes in the potions section to discover  _ Mutoris: The Body Switching Potion and its Uses _ . It takes even less time to identify that this is the culprit, and the cause of her predicament. Its ingredients are similar to those of the simplified Polyjuice, and it requires DNA from both parties to switch (Lily vaguely remembers Sirius’ hair in the potion the night before).

She casts a quick temporary masking charm on the book before tiptoeing out of the Restricted Section just in time for Pince to not recognize her absence. Lily grabs everything she’s left at a nearby table and waves goodbye to the shrill librarian cheerfully, hiding the invisible book in her robes (perks of wizarding clothing).

She takes the book, which becomes visible by the time she gets to the second floor, all the way to the boys’ dormitory, finding Sirius’ bed and drawing his curtains so as to not be disturbed. The more she reads, the more worried she becomes, and by the time her next passing period begins, she realizes that she and Sirius are in some deep shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ooooh a bodyswap??? totally didnt see that coming


	4. sirius matters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "She speaks hurriedly, tripping over her words as she tries to explain what happened to them as quickly as possible, but it can be summed up easily. They're in deep shit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> might fuck around and write in sirius' pov.......

Just before Sirius can enter the Defense classroom, he’s pulled aside by his own arms into a dark corridor. His own worried face looks back at him, and he raises his eyebrows at Lily Evans inquisitively, wordlessly asking the question he’s been obsessing over during the entirety of her Ancient Runes class.

She speaks hurriedly, tripping over her words as she tries to explain what happened to them as quickly as possible, but it can be summed up easily.

They’re in deep shit.

“You’re joking,” Sirius mutters, when she’s said her piece, “we made an _illegal_ _body switching potion_?”

“Something like that,” Lily says under her breath, “highly dangerous and not taught in schools -you need a  _ permit _ to make it.”

“You can’t be serious.”

Lily stares at him for a moment.

“I’m  _ literally _ Sirius. And you’re Lily.”

“That joke is rubbish and you know it, Evans,” Sirius mutters, “what do we  _ do _ ?”

“I don’t know!” Sirius starts to worry that Lily will get frown lines on his face from the way she’s panicking, and is about to tell her about a facemask she can use before she continues. “You were right about one thing: we definitely can’t tell anyone. We’ll be expelled, if not prosecuted! The laws about this potion are very strict. I mean- it’s banned in most of the Wizarding E.U. because of how complicated and risky it is!” She says in a hushed voice. Sirius crosses his arms, feeling oddly proud of himself.

“Evans, we’re… brilliant! I think we deserve an O in Potions just for this!” Lily rolls her eyes, but Sirius can tell she’s impressed with herself as well.

“If that’s true, then we’ll have no trouble with the antidote, right?” She says. Sirius raises an eyebrow, partially worried and partially intrigued.

“The anti-”

“Lily?” Lily turns, startled, and Sirius looks to his left to find Dorcas Meadowes entering the corridor, “Defense is about to-” she stops, perplexed, and stares at them like they’ve turned green (she wore the same exact expression in fourth year when Sirius actually turned green for a day, thanks to a Prongs prank). “What are you two-”

“He asked me to help him cheat on his Muggle Studies test next week,” Sirius says quickly, before turning back to Lily, “but,  _ obviously _ , the answer is no!”

“Merlin, Evans, what’s stuck up  _ your _ arse?” Lily mutters, in a frighteningly accurate impression of him, before leaving the corridor in a hurry. If this potion business gets them expelled, Sirius reckons that he and Lily have promising careers as actors ahead of them. Dorcas watches Lily leave, before beckoning to Sirius, who catches up with her as she follows Lily into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. He sits at a desk in between Dorcas and Mary MacDonald as Professor Pendergrass begins class.

“Can anyone tell me what an  _ inferius _ is?” The class is silent for a moment. Pendergrass isn’t an awful professor, considering the track record of defense teachers, but his inability to answer his own questions is quite frankly irritating. He waits, looking around the room as if the answer is written on the walls somewhere.  _ Inferius _ … Sirius knows that he’s heard of that word somehow.

_ They say that He’s created hundreds of inferi, _ Sirius remembers Bellatrix telling his father a couple years back,  _ isn’t it amazing? _ She’d asked. His mother scoffed.

_ The strangest things amuse you, Bellatrix… they were muggles, I presume? _

Sirius feels a bit ill as he remembers what they’d been talking about. He can’t stop his hand from shaking a little when he raises it. Pendergrass seems surprised when he sees Sirius’ hand in the air, though he’s not sure why. Lily is prone to having answers to questions.

“Miss Evans?”

“They’re, er-” Sirius can feel Lily’s eyes on him, but looks straight at Pendergrass, “corpses. Bodies that get reanimated with dark magic.” The air in the classroom turns cold, and Sirius hears a Hufflepuff gasp.

“That is… correct,” Pendergrass says slowly, before turning to the chalkboard as Sirius glances across the room. James seems disturbed as he mutters something to Lily and Remus pales considerably. Peter looks just about ready to piss himself. Sirius pulls some parchment out of his bag and starts to take notes. It’s a quiet class period.

Sirius hurries out of the room after class and is about to talk to Lily when Dorcas grabs his arm.

“Hey, are you alright?” She asks quietly.

“Alright? Yeah, I’m fine, why?” Sirius replies, almost too quickly.

“You’ve been acting off today, do you have a fever?” Dorcas claps the back of her hand over Sirius’ forehead, muttering to herself, “Nope, no fever… you’re still in for tonight, right?”

“Tonight?” Sirius echoes.  _ What’s tonight? _ Dorcas furrows her brow.

“In the dorm,” she tells him, as if it gives him any information at all. Sirius nods absently.

“Of course! Tonight, in the dorm—you got it,” he says. Dorcas smiles.

“I gotta get to Divination, don’t work yourself too hard!” She hurries off, leaving Sirius in an empty corridor. He waits until she’s out of sight to start sprinting to the Muggle Studies classroom. He nearly trips over a first year and gets yelled at by two paintings, but he makes it to Lily before she’s entered class.

“Took you long enough,” Lily says, looking around to see if anyone’s watching. Luckily, the only other students in the corridors are a couple of fourth years snogging outside the History of Magic classroom, as class has already started.

“Dorcas practically ambushed me,” Sirius explains, “but you were talking about an antidote?” Lily nods.

“I’ve got the recipe, but it’s complicated. We’ll have to knick some stuff from Slughorn, and it takes almost two weeks to brew. Not to mention, you have to drink it on a night of a full moon and one wrong step could make it lethal.”

“The next full moon’s in,” Sirius takes a second to count, “thirteen days.” Lily stares at him blankly.

“Did you hear the  _ lethal _ part? And since when were you an expert on lunar cycles?” She questions. Sirius scratches the back of his neck, cursing himself for being so obvious.

“I pay attention in Astronomy!”

“You still take Astronomy?”

“What’s with the bloody interrogation, Evans?” Sirius asks, and she shrugs, before starting towards the door. “Oh, shit, wait!” Lily looks back at him.

“Yes?”

“What’s tonight? In the dorms?” Realization flashes across Lily’s face.

“Oh, I completely forgot! Every month, we have… well, I guess I can only describe it as a slumber party, but mainly we just get drunk and vent,” she tells Sirius, “the rules are no homework, no blokes, and no  _ Daily Prophet _ .”

“I regret to inform you that one of those rules might be broken tonight, Lily,” Sirius says, feeling a bit on edge. He may be in someone else’s body, but this is the first time he’s felt completely out of his depth. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Just… complain a lot.”

“About  _ what _ ?”

“What do you m- professors, N.E.W.T.s, the weather,” she offers.

“What if they figure it out?”

“Then act like me,” Lily says, as if it’s simple, “you can talk about how irritating Potter is, or rant about Petunia’s boyfriend—who’s a half-wit, by the way—”

“Who’s Petunia?”

“My sister!” Lily exclaims, “I’ve mentioned her,” she adds, like that’s supposed to jog Sirius’ memory. He vaguely recalls Prongs telling him about Lily’s muggle sister, but he hasn’t heard about her in years. Lily sighs. “Just stick to school, then. Complain about Pendergrass-”

“What’s wrong with Pendergrass?”

“You don’t know?”

“What am I supposed to-”

“Sirius, I’m almost five minutes late, figure it out.” With that, she turns on her heel and opens the classroom door. Sirius hears Professor Thornley say, “Nice of you to join us, Mr. Black” before the door swings shut.

Sirius starts to make his way back to Gryffindor Tower, but not before snapping at the snogging fourth years to knock it off and find a broom cupboard. The corridors are empty as all of the younger students have class and any sixth and seventh years who have a free period are no doubt studying for N.E.W.T.s or shagging in an empty classroom. And since Sirius has no desire to do either of those things, all he can do is sit in his (or, rather,  _ Lily’s _ ) dorm. When he climbs through the portrait hole, he’s surprised to find none other than Wormtail dozing off in front of the fire with a copy of  _ The Life of Uric the Oddball _ in his lap. Peter’s head snaps up when Sirius enters, and he raises a hand in greeting.

“Hullo, Lily,” he says quietly.

“Um… hi,” Sirius mutters, sidestepping around the armchairs and poofs before beginning to climb the girls’ stairs. Do Wormtail and Lily  _ talk _ ? He’s never heard them speak to each other before. The girls’ dormitory is hardly neat, but it’s certainly quite a bit nicer than his own. The beds are somewhat made, and there’s no rubbish lying around as far as Sirius can tell. Maybe Moony’s got a point about tidying up…

Lily’s bed has its curtains open and pictures of her with friends and family hung beside it, only a few of them moving. There’s a pile of books on her bedside table, and Sirius squints at the covers, but can’t recognize many of them. The illustrations on the covers are still, like the pictures, so Sirius figures that they’re muggle books. He sits down on her four-poster, feeling suddenly tired. Being in someone else’s body and breaking international wizarding laws have surprisingly taken a lot out of him, and he figures that perhaps his Charms homework can wait…

=|=

Sirius is woken by an aggressive shake and a loud “rise and shine!” from a vaguely familiar voice. He rolls over, mumbling, “sod off” as he fights against consciousness.

“Lily, you’ll have plenty of time to sleep this weekend,” a voice from the other side of the room pipes up, “and we’ve got firewhiskey!”

Sirius cracks open an eye, but finds himself facing an empty wall. He sits up begrudgingly, pushing his (or Lily’s, he supposes) hair out of his face. It’s starting to get tangled, and he’s got half a mind to chop it off and give Lily a bob—the Dorothy Hamill look’s in style, right? Marlene McKinnon and Dorcas Meadowes are lounging on the bed across from his, Marlene holding two full bottles of firewhiskey. Mary MacDonald, who must’ve been the one shaking him, slumps down onto his bed, giggling. The door opens, and another girl steps inside, holding a  _ Honeydukes _ bag.

“Oh, good, you’re awake,” she says as the door shuts behind her, “Sugar Quill?” Sirius nods hesitantly. He knows that he’s seen her around Hogwarts, but hasn’t got a foggy clue what her name is. She usually eats with some group of Hufflepuffs, and rarely speaks in class. The girl fishes out a pack of Sugar Quills and tosses them to him; he catches them with ease and starts busying himself with opening them as Mary chatters away with Dorcas. Sirius sticks a Sugar Quill in his mouth just as Marlene clears her throat, popping the cork off of one of her bottles and raising it in the air.

“Ladies,” she says, “a toast.” Dorcas laughs, slapping Marlene’s arm lightly while she continues. “To, er… us! And alcohol!”

“Eloquent as always, my dear,” Dorcas mutters as Marlene takes a sip of firewhiskey, before taking the other bottle and passing it to the girl whose name Sirius can’t remember.

“Alright—gossip, who’s got it?” Mary asks. Dorcas presses her lips together in annoyance, pushing her glasses up on her nose.

“Why is it always about gossip with you-”

“I heard that Kenneth Stebbins hooked up with Emmeline Vance and Professor Binns caught them,” Marlene interjects. Dorcas sighs, and snatches the bottle from her to take a sip.

“Bullshit,” Mary says, “who’d you hear that from?”

“Dirk Cresswell.”

“Of course you heard it from Cresswell, he’s a bloody attention whore,” the girl whose name Sirius can’t remember crosses the room to hand him her bottle. Sirius looks at it for a moment, before taking a substantial swing. This is going to be a long night.

“Florence, would it kill you to be a little nicer?”

_ Aha! Her name’s Florence! _

“I’m dating a Hufflepuff, I’m plenty nice,” Florence says.

“If dating a Hufflepuff makes you nice,” Dorcas starts, “then dating Marlene must make me a Quidditch player.” Marlene throws an arm around her, leaning into her.

“Babe, if you played Quidditch… you’d be a  _ Keeper _ ,” she mumbles. Sirius is too busy choking on his Sugar Quill to appreciate the rather masterful pun.  _ Dorcas Meadowes and Marlene McKinnon? _ He’s played Quidditch with Marlene since fourth year, how did he not know-

“Lily, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this quiet,” Mary cuts off his thoughts abruptly, “what’s up with you today?” Sirius taps his fingers against the bottle in his hands nervously, trying to come up with something. “Is it what Pendergrass said in class?” Sirius thinks back to their Defense lesson.

“About  _ inferi _ ?” He asks. Mary shakes her head, her bangs flopping to the side.

“No, the-” she lowers her voice to imitate Pendergrass, “Miss  _ Evans _ ? Really?  _ You _ have the answer? I didn’t know muggle-borns knew how to read!” Sirius blinks, taken aback, but Mary continues in her regular voice. “He’s such a pompous arse.”

“You can tell the world’s going to shit when Dumbledore has to hire blood purists to teach classes,” Dorcas mutters darkly. Sirius narrows his eyes at her. He can’t believe what he’s hearing. Pendergrass? A blood purist? Since when?

“You think he’s a blood purist?” He asks.

“Well, I don’t think he’s joining up with the Death Eaters any time soon, but you’re the one who told me he failed you on that essay you wrote about applying muggle biology to the study of dark creatures,” Dorcas tells him.

“Right.” Sirius downs some more firewhiskey.

“Next thing you know, Dumbledore’s going to name fucking  _ Mulciber _ the valedictorian,” Dorcas adds, and Sirius can feel Mary freeze beside him at the mention of the name.

“Can we not talk about Mulciber right now? I’m not in the mood.” Sirius suddenly remembers rumors from last year, after Mulciber had gotten two week’s worth of detentions for unexplained reasons. He never did find out what happened with that creep. Marlene claps her hands forcefully.

“On a lighter note: Gryffindor’s definitely beating Ravenclaw next week,” she announces, her blue eyes glittering, “Lils, I know he’s your nemesis or whatever, but Potter’s a Quidditch genius. Best captain in years, but he won’t let us rest for a second. Probably a good thing…” Sirius grins before remembering that he’s supposed to hate Prongs, and takes another sip as he tries to think of something.

“Not if it’s  _ Potter _ ,” he mutters after a moment, “he’s such a… twat!” Mary claps him on the shoulder.

“There’s our Lily!” She exclaims, “I was starting to think something was wrong—I mean, your dad’s okay, right?”

_ My dad? What’s wrong with Lily’s dad? _

“He’s the same,” Sirius answers, trying to remember if he’s ever heard Lily mention her father. He’s gone to school with her for six years, but he’s starting to think that he might not even know her. Dorcas is watching him with curious eyes from her spot on Marlene’s bed.

“And Petunia?”

“She’s, you know,  _ Petunia _ .” Sirius pauses, “And her boyfriend’s insufferable. Total… half-wit.”

“She’s still dating that Vernon guy? Unbelievable,” Florence says from across the room, in-between bites of a cauldron cake, before sitting up straight and fixing Sirius with an intense look, “oh! I just remembered!” Sirius swallows.

“Yeah?”

“I can’t tell you who told me, but I have it on good authority that Davey Gudgeon totally fancies you!” Sirius raises an eyebrow. Gudgeon’s a Hufflepuff—he nearly got mauled by the Whomping Willow a couple years back, but he seems like an alright bloke, albeit a little dim.

“Really? Well-”

He’s interrupted by a tap against the window, and turns his head to find one of the school’s owls holding an envelope. Marlene gets up to let it in, and opens the window just a crack to take the letter from its talons. She analyzes it, flipping it front to back briefly before looking up.

“It’s for Lily.”

Sirius gets out of his bed, crossing the room and taking the letter silently. It’s just addressed to  _ Lily Evans _ . He opens it carefully, but the letter inside is brief.

_ Meet me in the empty classroom on the third floor near Arithmancy. Tell them McGonagall needs to talk about Prefect stuff. Don’t forget your badge!!!! _

_ -LILY EVANS _

Sirius folds the parchment in half. “Has anyone seen my Prefect Badge?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all i got my ap calc exam on tuesday and i havent fucking studied pray for me,, if i dont update next saturday assume the test killed me  
> xoxo gossip girl


	5. personal business

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “You know, if it weren’t for our unique situation, Evans, I’d say that that letter you sent me was a bit suggestive.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i survived my AP tests!! and i didn't cry once!! that's what i call a success;)  
> anyway hope you enjoy this v short chapter!

Lily’s almost convinced that Sirius isn’t going to show when the classroom door creaks open, noisy footsteps accompanying the sound. Sirius closes the door behind him with a loud  _ thud _ that makes Lily wince. It’s like he’s asking to be caught (at least he’s wearing the badge, even if it is lopsided).

“You know, if it weren’t for our unique situation, Evans, I’d say that that letter you sent me was a bit suggestive,” he says, before giggling at his own joke. How much firewhiskey did he have? Lily decides not to worry about it, as there are more pressing issues at hand. Specifically, the empty copper cauldron sitting on the floor in front of her. She had to sneak into the Potions classroom to find it, as she left it there after class the day before.

“Just sit down,” Lily orders, pointing at a spot on the floor beside her.

“Merlin, Lily, I’m not a  _ dog _ ,” he starts laughing again, though this joke makes even less sense than the last one, but complies, plopping down cross-legged in front of the cauldron, “what do we have here?”

“An antidote,” Lily tells him, “or- the beginnings of one.”

“Why aren’t we using my cauldron?”

“Because it’s got our Potions project in it,” Lily answers, “which, by the way, I almost finished while you were gossiping with my friends.” Sirius groans.

“Don’t tell me we have to bring that thing to class on Tuesday.”

“It’s not that heavy,” Lily informs him, “and, besides, it’s a very nice cauldron. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Sirius scoffs, rolling his eyes at her.

“That’s ‘cause it’s property of the  _ Noble and Most Ancient House of Black _ ,” he says moodily, “it’s got the bloody family crest on it.” Lily opens her mouth to say something, but he carries on, “Oh, and here’s the kicker: you wanna know what the family motto is?” He doesn’t wait for her to guess. “ _ Toujours pur _ . And for our non-francophiles at home, that means  _ always pure _ . Always a fun thing to have printed on your only cauldron, right?” Lily waits a moment, but Sirius seems to be finished, so she speaks.

“Right… are you done sulking?” Sirius nods. “The antidote is difficult, but I think I can pull it off. You’re going to need to help me with the ingredients,” she explains, “I’ll write up a list tomorrow. For now, the potion stays here: it has to be completely in the dark for its first week of brewing, so…” Lily points her wand at a brick that’s approximately a foot away, inspecting it for a moment to make sure she’s got the right one, “ _ Revelio _ !” The brick, along with those surrounding it, seem to melt away, revealing a small cupboard in the wall. Lily can’t imagine what use it must’ve had in this classroom, but she’s glad that she found out about it last year (being Prefect allowed her to do some exploring of the castle without getting in trouble). She pretends not to hear Sirius’ awed “brilliant!” and stands up to move the cauldron. One benefit of being Sirius Black, she notes as she picks it up with ease, is his strength and height. She hastily opens the cupboard with her foot, before placing the cauldron gently inside and closing it with a soft  _ click _ . She taps her wand against it lightly, muttering “ _ Finite _ ,” and watching as the cupboard disguises itself again.

“While we’re talking business,” Sirius says, causing Lily to turn around, “if we’re gonna pretend to be each other, we might need to know more about one another.” Lily narrows her eyes at him. She doesn’t particularly like where this is heading.

“Why? What do you need to know?”

“Well, your friends are rather nosy, Evans,” Sirius tells her, “and  _ I _ don’t know what’s wrong with your dad, or why you hate your sister’s boyfriend so much, or-”

“I get it,” Lily says curtly. Sirius shuts up, looking up at her with wide eyes, but she doesn’t feel like divulging all of her personal life and secrets, especially not to Sirius Black, of all people. The look she gives him seems to sober him up.

“Sorry, Lily, I didn’t mean to-”

“No, you’re right,” she admits, taking a couple steps forward and sitting back down next to him. She rifles through her (well, Sirius’) leather book bag that she brought with her until she finds a couple pieces of parchment, as well as some quills and an ink pot. She hands him a piece, before dipping her own quill in ink and writing  _ Sirius Black’s Personal Business _ across the top of her parchment. Sirius chuckles, before following suit. He adds the words  _ Number One _ under his title and looks up at her expectantly. Lily heaves a sigh.

“Well, my dad’s got a heart condition,” she explains, “so that’s probably what they were talking about.” She doesn’t tell him about the heart attack her father had the previous summer, or how it had taken Petunia days to even show up to visit him. Sirius scribbles something down on his parchment. “Your turn,” Lily says.

“Uh…” Sirius furrows his brows, deep in thought, “Oh! You have to know the nicknames: I’m  _ Padfoot _ ,” Lily writes  _ Sirius=Padfoot _ down, “Remus is  _ Moony _ , Pete’s  _ Wormtail _ , and James is  _ Prongs _ .” Lily wrinkles her nose.

“Please tell me that isn’t an innuendo.” Sirius barks out a laugh.

“You wish! No, it’s just… nonsense we came up with last year,” he says, waving a hand in dismissal, “your turn!”

“There’s a schedule in my trunk for patrolling,” Lily tells him, “and the Prefects’ bathroom is on the fifth floor, near the  _ Boris the Bewildered _ statue.” Lily regrets her decision to tell him the location when she sees the smug way his lips curl upwards as he jots down the information.

“Good to know,” he says, “I was planning to get it out of Remus, but this is much easier.”

“Whatever, you’re up.” Lily points her quill at Sirius.

“Alright,” he tucks a strand of red hair behind his ear, meeting her eyes, “ask away, Lily, I’m an open book.”

Lily’s first thought is about Remus’ scars. She’s never seen anything like it, and judging by Sirius’ lack of a reaction, it’s clear that he knows more than he lets on. But as curious as she is, that isn’t the question that comes out of her mouth.

“Do you and your brother ever talk?” Sirius frowns immediately, crossing his arms like a moody toddler.

“On second thought I’m a closed book—I’m in the Restricted Section,” he mutters, before looking up at the ceiling and letting out a long sigh, “no. We’ve barely spoken all year. You don’t want to hear my sob stories, though—they’re rather depressing.” Lily’s never seen her own face look so… blank. Maybe Regulus is more of a sensitive topic than she realized.

“Then ask me something,” she offers.

“Um,” Sirius thinks for a moment, “what happened with Mary MacDonald last year? And Mulciber?”

Whatever Lily was expecting from him, it definitely isn’t this. She remembers the night far too vividly. It was sometime in April the year before, and Mary hadn’t come back to the dormitory after dinner. Lily was woken up by the creaking of the door and Mary was sobbing as she told the story. Lily didn’t need to hear much, however; the word  _ MUDBLOOD _ burned into Mary’s arm told the tale quicker than she could. Lily can feel Sirius watching her, but she doesn’t make eye contact.

“It’s,” she makes a vague hand gesture, “really not my story to tell. But it wasn’t good… dark magic and all that. If we had any proof that Mulciber was behind it, he’d be in Azkaban.”

“You’d be amazed with what those nutters get away with,” Sirius says dismally, “I’d know.”

“You’re a depressing drunk, Sirius,” Lily points out.

“I didn’t even have that much! Your tolerance is absolute rubbish, you know that?” Sirius shakes his head, fiddling with his piece of parchment absently. “This was a stupid idea. We should just… get to bed. We can start working on the antidote tomorrow.” He tosses Lily his quill, and she packs up her bag hastily. Sleep is definitely what she needs right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the next chapter's gonna be a lot longer but idk if that's a good thing?? personally im usually not a huge fan of sitting for ages and reading a singular 10k chapter but maybe thats just me and my illiterate braincells..


	6. a cauldron full of hot, strong love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Lily usually has dreams. They’re not always detailed, but she rarely falls into a blank blackness like she does tonight. That is, until-"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter's a bit longer,, hope y'all enjoy:)

Lily usually has dreams. They’re not always detailed, but she rarely falls into a blank blackness like she does tonight. That is, until-

“I got a cauldron—full of hot, strong love, and it’s bubbling for you!” The voice that wakes her up is far too loud for this early in the morning, and horribly off pitch. “Say  _ Incendio _ , but that spell’s not hot as my witch’s brew!” Lily groans, reaching for a pillow to cover her ears, but the singing won’t let up. “Don’t you be afraid, come and take a sip of this steamy, tasty treat! What’s in my cauldron full of hot, strong love will make your life complete!” Lily gives up on sleep, sitting up in her bed and shielding her eyes from the light that comes through the open window.

_ Jesus, do they ever use the bloody curtains? _

She can’t focus on the window for much longer, however, because the scene in front of her is… disturbing.

James Potter is dancing—rather obnoxiously, she may add—in the middle of the dormitory, belting out  _ A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love _ while holding a comb to his face like a microphone ( _ do wizards even use microphones? _ ). His pajamas have little broomsticks on them. Maybe she was wrong, and this whole body-switching debacle really is a dream. There’s no way this can be real. She reaches up to touch her hair, but upon feeling the rat’s nest that is Sirius Black’s haircut she concludes that she is in fact awake. She pinches herself for good measure.

“...why my cauldron full of hot, strong love is worth it—take the chance!”

Lily hears a moan from a bed across the room, and Peter Pettigrew’s head pops out of the curtains of his four-poster.

“Celestina Warbeck, Prongs? Really?” Potter trails off, his performance coming to an abrupt end.

“Well, it got you up, didn’t it?” He says, as the bathroom door opens and Remus steps inside, holding a toothbrush. “And she’s got the voice of an angel,” Potter pauses, glancing around warily as if he’s worried someone will hear, “but that doesn’t leave this room.” Remus rolls his eyes.

“She may have the voice of an angel, but you, James? Not so much.”

James places a hand over his heart dramatically. “Your words, Moony… they sting!” He proclaims with a flourish. Lily scoffs.

“God forbid you harm his precious ego,” she mutters. Peter cackles and Potter flings his comb at Lily’s head—it only barely misses.

“Hurry up, or we’ll miss breakfast,” Potter says. Lily can’t remember the last time she’s seen the four of them eat separately.  _ Do they do everything together? _

Remus disappears back into the loo as Lily reluctantly climbs out of bed. She never pegged Potter as an early riser, but then again she couldn’t have dreamed that he’d be a Celestina Warbeck fan. This morning is full of surprises.

Luckily, the rest of the morning does not include the musical stylings of James Potter, and Lily doesn’t miss breakfast. She passes Sirius when she enters the Great Hall, but all he offers her is a wink before disappearing to God-knows-where with Marlene.

Potter’s surprisingly quiet during breakfast, so Lily listens to Peter and Remus chat about their Herbology homework while staring forlornly at Dorcas and Mary at the other end of the table. It’s only been a day, but she misses her friends like crazy. Hanging around with Potter is hardly a fair trade. He won’t stop ruffling his own hair and craning his neck around her, like he’s looking for something.

“Prongs,” she begins, testing out the nickname, “what’s with you?” Peter breaks off his conversation to look at Potter, who’s picking at his toast.

“Mate, I saw her,” Peter says, “she already finished breakfast, you can find some other time to harass her.”

Lily narrows her eyes at Potter. “Who?”

“Lily, obviously,” Remus answers, plopping a sugar cube into his tea. And then another. Then a third. Lily wonders momentarily if there’ll be any tea left after the amount he puts in, but she’s more concerned about Potter.

“She put leeches down your robes for Christ’s sake, why do you think you have a shot?” She asks. He sets his toast down with a shrug.

“Practice is starting soon, I better set up,” he gets up, watching Lily carefully. He stands there for a moment, like he’s waiting for something, before leaving. Lily wonders for a moment if she was supposed to go with him, but she knows that Sirius isn’t on the team. She turns back to Remus and Peter, who both seem a little stunned.

“What?”

Remus sets his tea down. “No, Padfoot, I think it’s a good thing that you’re not watching the practices anymore. It’s healthy, moving on.”

“Besides,” Peter says, “they’re probably better off without you yelling instructions at their new beater.” Remus elbows him lightly, and he mumbles an apology. Lily imagines Sirius sitting in on Quidditch practice and shouting directions across the pitch. He must be more upset about being kicked off the team than he lets on.

“I’ve had enough of Potter’s showing off,” Lily says, and Remus raises an eyebrow at her before taking a sip of his tea. Peter laughs, nearly knocking over his plate of buttered rolls in the process.

“Well, in that case, gentlemen,” he says, “we’ve got the whole day ahead of us. What shall we do?” Lily doesn’t dare offer up any suggestions, since her first idea is to get some of her homework out of the way: a decidedly non-Sirius line of thought.

“I don’t fancy working on the map, it’s far too nice out for that.” Lily has no idea what map Remus is talking about, but she nods anyway.

“I’m not really in a pranking mood… I vote for loitering outside.” Peter suggests. Remus raises his teacup, like he’s about to give a toast.

“I second that,” he brings the cup to his lips, looking expectantly at Lily over the rim.

_ They really don’t do anything apart. _

=|=

One thing about being Sirius Black: it’s significantly less stressful than being Lily Evans. Lily’s sprawled under a large oak tree, breathing in the spring air and listening to Sirius’ friends exchange ideas for some kind of end-of-year prank without any regard to the consequences… she could get used to this.

Remus and Peter shoot her surprised looks when she reaches for her homework, but they don’t say anything when she starts working on a paper for Defense Against the Dark Arts. She figures that being in Sirius’ body isn’t a good enough excuse to fail her classes (especially since she can’t tell anyone). She gets bored with the essay quickly enough, and casts a cautious glance at Peter and Remus before pulling out her stolen book and flipping to the chapter about the antidote. She covers the pages carefully with her arm as she begins to copy the potion ingredients onto a separate piece of parchment. She doesn’t get very far, as she feels something kick her leg and looks up to see Remus watching her.

“What’re you writing, Pads?” He asks, and when Lily doesn’t respond, he throws his hands up in mock surrender. “Secrets, then? Can they wait?” Lily shrugs and tosses her list (upside-down) onto a page of the book, before closing it and hastily shoving it in her bag.

“I suppose,” she says, sitting up, “what’s on your mind?” Remus always looks like he’s thinking about something very important and profound.

“When ghosts go through walls, do you think they feel something? Or is it just like us walking through air?” Lily snorts.

Okay. Maybe not quite as profound as she was imagining.

Remus grins. “What? It’s important!”

He’s got frown lines, and Lily can spot a few gray hairs peeking out from under the brown, though he’s far too young to have them. And, of course, there are the scars. There’s too many to count, and they’re far too large for any reasonable explanation. One starts on his cheek and snakes down his neck and under his robes—not even Peter could cut himself like that on accident. She has a feeling that she’s not the only one keeping secrets.

“I don’t think they feel anything,” Lily says finally, “otherwise Binns would’ve figured out that he’s dead a while ago.”

“Poor sod hasn’t got a clue,” Peter concurrs, “if I didn’t like history as much as I do, I would’ve dropped his class as soon as I had a chance.” Lily raises her eyebrows , leaning back against the trunk of the tree and stretching Sirius’ ridiculously long legs out in front of her.

“Is History of Magic your favorite subject then?” She tries not to sound judgemental, but she can feel it seep through just a bit. Despite her love of academics, History of Magic was never something she could get behind. Even as a first year, when anything magic (as mundane as it was) fascinated her. Peter nods.

“Don’t get my mouth frozen shut in History of Magic, do I?” Lily almost apologizes, but he’s smiling when he says it, so she doesn’t think that there are any hard feelings. “What’s yours? Muggle studies?” Lily opens her mouth to agree, but Remus beats her to it.

“It’s obviously Transfiguration,” he says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. He probably knows Sirius better than she does, but somehow, Lily can’t imagine him being captivated by Transfiguration when he spends most of the lessons bothering McGonagall or passing notes with Potter. “Come on, Sirius, you can’t tell me that Transfiguration isn’t your favorite after that stunt you pulled last year.”

“Ten points to Moony,” Lily says, pretending that she has any idea what the hell he’s talking about. These Marauders and their secrets… by the time she starts piecing one mysterious reference together, they manage to baffle her with another.

“I was part of it too,” Peter chimes in, “and Prongs, for that matter.” Remus nods absently.

“And yours?” Lily asks him.

Remus blinks. “My what?”

“Favorite subject. Aside from all of them,” Lily clarifies.

“Oh, Defense, no question,” he answers without hesitation, “it’s going to be the most useful, unfortunately, though Pendergrass rubs me the wrong way, not that he’ll be around for much longer…” Remus begins to ramble about Defense Against the Dark Arts, and the way his eyes light and he sits up straighter is sort of endearing. She’s talked to him a myriad of times, but he’s never seemed so… open.

He’s in the middle of a story about grindylows when a Ravenclaw—Dirk Cresswell, a fifth year Prefect—runs up to the three of them, looking far too excited for Lily’s comfort.

“You’ll never believe what just happened,” he doesn’t wait for anyone to take a guess. “Lily Evans just got detention for hexing a fifth year!”

Lily nearly pulls a muscle from how fast she shoots up, her back ramrod straight and her eyes wide with terror.

“She did  _ what _ ?”

“No shit,” Peter says from beside her, “didn’t think she’d have it in her.”

_ She doesn’t! _

Lily’s staring at Dirk Cresswell, but he doesn’t seem to have any answers for her, as he jogs away to find the next person to deliver gossip to. Cresswell’s been known to spread rumors, maybe it isn’t true…

Or maybe this is Sirius Black they’re talking about. Typical. It’s just like him to-

“Oi, Padfoot!” Lily whirls around to the sound of the voice, finding Potter practically sprinting towards her, covered in mud and still wearing his Quidditch uniform. He comes to a halt in front of her, rocking on the balls of his feet as he analyzes her. “Merlin, who died?” When Lily doesn’t answer, Potter’s smile falters. “Oh my-  _ who died _ ?”

“No one died!” Remus reassures him, smacking Lily’s shoulder lightly. “Sirius is just in shock about a certain Prefect’s recent detention.”

“You heard?” Potter sits down next to Peter, legs crossed and leaning forward. He’s grinning ear to ear, almost like he’s… proud? “Y’know, she stopped by our Quidditch practice—she never does that—and she left after a few minutes but the moment it ended, I heard Minnie yelling so I thought ‘I’ve got to see this’ and  _ lo and behold _ : Evans is in trouble for hexing Malcolm Wilkes for calling her a- well, y’know.” He’s speaking so rapidly that it takes Lily a few seconds to process what he’s said. She starts fidgeting with the ends of Sirius’ atrocious hair as Potter rambles on excitedly.

_ Sirius Black hexed a kid for calling me a mudblood… _ She isn’t sure if it’s stupid or admirable. She’s pondering this when Peter claps her on the back.

“What’s with the long face, Pads? You’re always talking about how that kid needs to get what’s coming to him. Besides, his tongue will grow back eventually.”

Lily chuckles, willing herself to think a little less. That’s what Sirius does, right? He doesn’t seem like the type to dwell on things. Just as Lily decides on her new philosophy, she hears a shriek.

And then a splash.

She scrambles to her feet, accompanied by Sirius’ friends, and whirls around to face the Great Lake, which is glistening with sunlight today, looking utterly majestic.

Oh, and there’s a first year in it.

Remus pinches the bridge of his nose for a moment. “Fucking hell,” he mutters, “Pete, wanna help me out?” Peter nods and whips out his wand, a determined look in his eyes. Lily almost joins the boys when they sprint towards the lake, but Potter grabs her arm.

“Pads, relax,” he says, far too calmly, “‘s not the first time a brat’s fallen into the Great Lake. And it’s Moony’s job to deal with it, innit? Being Prefect and all?” Lily turns to face him, a little incredulous.

“Are you kidding?” She asks.

“What? Pete and Remus are big boys, they can handle it,” Potter throws an arm around her and she has to stop herself from shoving him off. He keeps doing that, and it’s rather uncomfortable, in Lily’s opinion. He’s far too close for comfort, and he smells like rubbish after Quidditch practice. She tries to glance over her shoulder at the Great Lake, but he steers her away from it, strolling casually towards the castle. “So I was thinking,” Potter says, “I’ve got a box of Stink Pellets, and maybe if we brewed some  _ Babbling Beverage _ we might be able to, you know, enhance their abilities…” Lily can’t believe that she has to be a part of these stupid pranks now, “but that’ll require some potions knowledge so one of us might have to write home to Dad.” Potter pauses. “I vote you—I think my parents are convinced that you can do no evil.”

Lily raises her eyebrows, surprised. “What gave them that idea?”

“I don’t know!” Potter exclaims, “Here I am, obviously a perfect child, and  _ you’re _ the favorite? It’s unbelievable.” He sounds exasperated, but he’s beaming. “I think that you running away from home was, like, the best thing that happened to them.”

Lily almost trips over thin air.  _ Running away from home? _ She struggles to take the information in as she forces her legs to keep moving. Sirius Black ran away from home. She tries to wrap her head around it, imagining Sirius packing a bag in the middle of the night and flying away on his broom. Maybe he used Floo Powder (Lily’s only tried it a couple times, but she really isn’t a fan). Lily notices Potter staring at her, and forces a laugh, muttering something in agreement.

“You wanna sneak into the kitchens tonight? I’ve been craving some pumpkin pasties, and they rarely serve them this late in the year, which is a crime, in my opinion…” Lily thinks of her half-finished ingredients list, and figures that she needs to start the antidote tonight if she’s going to have it ready in time for the full moon (Sirius was right, there’s only twelve days left now).

“Maybe tomorrow,” she offers. Potter slows his pace.

“Tomorrow’s Sunday, Padfoot,” he tells her slowly.

Lily looks at him sideways. “I know.”

“You have detention with Minnie every Sunday night, remember?”

“Oh. Yeah.” She most certainly does  _ not _ remember. What the hell did Sirius do to get stuck in detention with McGonagall every damn weekend?

“Hey, maybe you and Evans will have detention together!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> while i was looking up celestina warbeck i found this?? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU5I8ek0Rt8  
> so enjoy ig


	7. detention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius has detention with Evans...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im finally done with school (or e-school)!! this means i'll either have more time to write or more time to.. reread the entire percy jackson series. whatever comes first.....

Sirius has detention with Evans. Between her glare and McGonagall’s, it’s getting a bit difficult to polish his suit of armour, but he tries to ignore them both. He still maintains that he did the right thing by putting Wilkes in his place—the slimy bastard had it coming.

Minnie, clearly, does not agree.

He’s still in awe that she managed to catch him—maybe Evans’ hair is just too bright to miss. Or maybe that woman truly does have eyes on the back of her head.

“Miss Evans, Mr. Black,” McGonagall begins, “as much as I enjoy spending my evenings like this, I do have quite a bit of work tonight. I will return when your detention is over, and I trust that neither of you will attempt to bend the rules,” with this, she gives Lily a pointed look, “as I have the lovely Ms. Plunkett here to watch you.” Minnie nods at a portrait of a pale witch holding a fish, who offers her a sad smile in return. Sirius vaguely remembers Andromeda reading him a story about Mirabella Plunkett… he’s fairly certain she tried to fuck a fish, but he can’t recall the details. Or did she turn into a fish? He listens to the clicking of Minnie’s heels as she walks towards her office across the hall.

The moment she steps inside, Lily drops her rag and turns to Sirius, crossing her arms.

“You have detention  _ every Sunday _ ?” Sirius is about to answer, but she keeps going. “Actually, never mind that—you got  _ me _ in detention!” She’s pointing at him now, and her face is going a tinge bit red with anger (it’s not a good look on him). “And I get that you’re a rebel or whatever, but pulling pranks or sneaking out after hours is different from  _ hexing people _ ! Do you know what that does to my reputation? I’m a Prefect: I’m expected to act a certain way.” Sirius has to stop himself from pulling a face, because the look on Lily’s is bordering on murderous.

“One detention won’t cost you your precious badge, Evans,” he tells her, “besides, the git deserved it.” She rubs her temple, her anger shifting to irritation.

“So, what?” She says sharply, “This was some sort of self-righteous crusade? You harm my chances of becoming Head Girl next year so you can feel like some kind of hero?”

Sirius rolls his eyes.  _ Does she think that I sat in some evil lair and plotted to destroy her future? It’s like she’s convinced the whole fucking universe is out to get her. _

“James is the hero,” he explains, “or, he tries to be—that’s not me. I just,” he thinks of yesterday afternoon, how he’d faltered when Wilkes called him that  _ word _ , and it had taken him a second to realize that it was directed at him. He had his wand out before he even knew what he was doing. “I just got angry.” Maybe it would’ve been better if he’d act more like James, who aspires to be some knight in shining armour…

Speaking of which-

“Those suits aren’t going to clean themselves!” Mirabella Plunkett reminds them shrilly.

“Were you this noisy as a haddock?” Sirius snaps as Lily picks up her rag again. Plunkett slumps in her frame, glowering at the two of them. Sirius polishes the shield of his suit of armour lazily, thinking that Minnie must have more creative ideas for punishment than cleaning. He misses the days when she’d just make him write lines. Lily shuffles a bit closer to him, scrubbing the side of her suit.

“For the record, I’m still mad at you,” she whispers, “but I started the antidote last night. If all goes well, it’ll be done in time for the full moon.”

Lily reaches into her robes and carefully pulls out a folded up piece of parchment, handing it to Sirius discreetly. She glances back at the portrait, but Mirabella Plunkett isn’t paying them much attention anymore.

“It’s the ingredients list,” Lily tells him, her voice low, “I’ve crossed off everything I have already, but we’ll need to figure out a way to get into Slughorn’s office without him knowing.”

Sirius pockets the list. “I might have an idea or two,” he says, James’ invisibility cloak coming to mind. He wonders if there’s a way to use it without Lily finding out about it. If it comes to it, he’s sure he’ll be able to distract Slughorn, but it might be difficult without his friends…

“I’ll leave the breaking and entering to you, then,” Lily mutters, “just don’t get caught.”

Sirius winks at her. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Lily nods slowly, wiping some dirt off of her suit of armour and worrying her lip with her teeth, like she’s trying to solve some kind of puzzle. Just as Sirius is thinking that he’ll have to have words with her if he ends up with cuts on his lips, she turns around to face him, grey eyes piercing. Sirius never thought that his eyes could be scary, but the way she’s looking at him is honestly a bit intimidating.

“When were you going to tell me that you ran away from home?”

_ Great. This is a fucking nightmare. _

“I don’t see why that’s your business,” Sirius replies flippantly. By the end of this, she’s going to know far too much about him.

“Maybe because  _ I am you _ ,” Lily says in a hushed, but increasingly aggravated tone, “how can you expect me to act natural when Potter drops bombshells like this and I don’t even know!”

_ Curse James and his insistence on good communication. _

“Well now you do,” Sirius informs her, turning back to his work.

“Not exactly,” Lily presses, “where do you even  _ live _ ?”

“With Prongs. For now.” Sirius has every intention of finding his own flat as soon as possible—he just needs to figure out how to get a share of the Black fortune with his name blasted off the bloody tapestry. But he’s not about to tell all of this to Lily Evans, of all people, who’s staring at him in disbelief.

“You live with Potter?” Sirius refrains from insulting her, though she’s starting to irritate him. He takes a deep breath.

“His parents are… good people,” he says quietly, tired of questions. The  _ personal business _ lists were definitely a bad idea.

“He said that you’re the favorite,” Lily tells him. Sirius chuckles.

“Of course I’m the favorite—Prongs won’t do the washing up if his damn life depends on it.” Lily laughs, before finally changing the topic.

“Have you done your homework?” She asks suddenly. Usually, Sirius waits until Sunday nights to start any of his schoolwork, but his tradition was unfortunately broken yesterday due to some judgemental looks from Lily’s friends. Dorcas’ gaze pressured him into doing his work better than any teacher could, so it is with a heavy heart that he admits to Lily that he has, in fact, done all of his homework. If she’s surprised, she doesn’t say it. “Good—I think it’s best if we exchange homework; it’d be pretty obvious if Sirius Black turned in Lily Evans’ essay.” Sirius hasn’t even considered this, but he nods anyway.

“Sure, I’ll drop it all off before breakfast,” he says.

“Oh, and after detention, you have to study chapter nineteen of  _ Advanced Rune Translation _ before my exam tomorrow,” before Sirius can protest and tell her that he knows nothing about ancient runes, she gives him an intense look, “I’m barely holding on to an  _ E _ in Runes, so if you fail this exam, I will have to kill you.”

“If you killed me, wouldn’t you end up being stuck in my body?” Sirius ponders aloud. Lily doesn’t seem deterred by his speculations.

“I’ll take the risk.”

Sirius is a bit impressed with her commitment to his hypothetical murder, so he relents, telling her that he’ll try his best while secretly brainstorming the best ways to cheat. Lily seems pleased and drops the subject, so their conversation settles into a calm silence as they keep working on cleaning their respective suits of armour.

Sirius hears someone clear their throat behind him, and turns around to find Mirabella Plunkett craning her neck to get a good look at him.

“You missed a spot.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fun fact: this chapter was only one word longer than chapter five!


	8. ancient runes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Lily? You've got that exam today, haven't you? With the runes?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyyyyy so it highkey feels like the world is ending so hope y'all are hanging in there! here's chapter 8:)

Sirius is just beginning to butter his toast when the mail comes, but for the first time since becoming Lily Evans, there’s a letter that accompanies his _ Daily Prophet _ , complete with a muggle stamp on the upper-right corner of the envelope. Sirius stares at the unmoving image of the queen for a moment, before glancing across the table at Lily, who pays no attention to him, distracted by a rather animated story being told by Peter, who’s miming something with his fork. Sirius feels a pang of envy at the smiles on their faces (even Lily, who should be uncomfortable with the way Prongs has his arm around her, is laughing) and forces himself to pay attention to the letter.

The moment he decides to find a time to hand it off to Lily, Mary nudges his side and nods at the envelope.

“You gonna open that?” She asks, as Dorcas unfolds a copy of the  _ Daily Prophet _ across from him. Sirius picks the letter up tentatively, before turning to Dorcas, trying to come up with a way to change the subject.

“Anything interesting going on?” He says, even though Dorcas Meadowes has this irritating habit of reading everything out loud, so he’s already heard about the Minister of Magic’s newest and harshest Azkaban-related policies. Harold Minchum’s known for being a hardass, so it’s hardly a surprise. Dorcas looks up at him over the top of the paper.

“Surprisingly low number of murders,” she tells him casually. Marlene leans towards her until she disappears behind the  _ Daily Prophet _ .

“Puddlemere United won against the Chudley Cannons, but there’s no surprise there,” she adds, like it’s just as important as Dorcas’ statement.

“What was the score?” Sirius asks her. Mary gives him a strange look as Marlene announces the score ( _ 11,740 to 260, but what more can you expect from the Cannons? _ ).

“Since when do you care about professional Quidditch? And will you open your letter already? You know how your parents get when you respond late,” Mary says. Sirius sighs and slowly opens the envelope, pulling out a folded-up piece of muggle paper, covered in neat writing. He skims it quickly (it’s not terribly interesting—one of Lily’s cousins is pregnant and her parents had dinner with the Dursleys for the first time), but he can’t help reading the last few words over and over, until it feels like they’re seared into his brain.

They aren’t particularly extraordinary—just the standard  _ we love and miss you so much _ —but Sirius can’t tear his eyes away until Marlene interrupts his thoughts.

“Lily? You’ve got that exam today, haven’t you? With the runes?”

_ Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit.  _ Sirius hastily folds up the letter and stuffs it forcefully back into its envelope. He can’t risk Evans murdering him like she threatened to last night—he refuses to die in her body.  _ Think, Sirius… _

He opens Lily’s book bag, rummaging inside for a bit before finding her Ancient Runes textbook and a spare bit of parchment. Chapter nineteen isn’t terribly long, and it doesn’t take long to flip through it and find what he’s looking for. He begins to copy the rune translations onto his parchment, but keeps getting distracted by Dorcas, who’s reading a letter aloud in a different language (Sirius recognizes it as Hindi after a moment—James’ mum speaks it sometimes, as if she’s hoping that James will eventually pick it up despite the fact that he never managed to learn it as a kid). In spite of Dorcas, Sirius manages to copy down all thirty-two runes and their translations by the time breakfast ends, sneaking the crib sheet into the Ancient Runes classroom triumphantly after casting a short-term invisibility charm on the ink.

Fortunately for him, Professor Babbling is too busy grading papers at her desk to pay much attention to him, and he finishes the exam easily, swearing to himself that he’ll never tell Lily what he did. He usually doesn’t feel the need to cheat on exams, but he feels a bit proud of himself as he turns this one in at the end of the class period. Students file out of the classroom, and he follows suit, tucking his parchment full of translations into his pocket. Just as he’s left the classroom, however, he hears a voice.

“Hi, er- Lily?”

Sirius turns around and looks up, momentarily worried that he’s been caught after all, but it isn’t Professor Babbling who’s standing right outside of the doorway, but Davey Gudgeon. He’s fidgeting awkwardly with his yellow tie and glancing around him, like he’s afraid of being seen. He reminds Sirius of the hares in the Forbidden Forest—like footsteps could send him bolting to the other side of the castle, if they’re heavy enough.

“Yeah?” Sirius says, almost worried that he’ll scare him off if he speaks too loud. Davey stares at him blankly for a moment, and Sirius wonders if he’s broken the poor bloke somehow.

“Well, um…” it seems to take a second for Davey to collect his thoughts, “as you know, this weekend’s going to be a Hogsmeade weekend, and I know you’re really busy and you probably have plans anyway but I was wondering if perhaps you’d want to possibly go on-a-date?”

It takes Sirius a moment to figure out what it is that Gudgeon’s asking, as he’s never seen a person use so many words to ask someone out. He could’ve done it in five, easy.

Sirius looks Davey up and down. He’s alright-looking, and a decent enough bloke for a Hufflepuff. Sure, Evans might be a little out of his league, but Sirius can’t stand watching his (rather pathetic-looking) puppy dog eyes.

“Sure—Saturday at eight sound good?” Sirius isn’t entirely sure what possessed him to say this, but he knows that he can’t take it back when he sees the way Davey grins far too widely.

“Saturday at eight! Perfect!”

Sirius feels suddenly nervous at Davey’s gleeful tone. “Where are you taking me?” He asks apprehensively.

“It’s a, um- surprise,” Davey says, in a way that makes it clear that he obviously has no idea.

“Looking forward to it,” Sirius blurts out, before walking away as fast as possible without it seeming like he’s running.

He doesn’t make it far before bumping into Peter, of all people, outside of the Great Hall. Luckily for Sirius, the rest of the Marauders, including Lily, are with him. Unluckily, this means that Prongs wastes no time before making an ass of himself.

“Hullo, Evans, fancy seeing you here,” he says, in a way he probably thinks is suave. Sirius isn’t in the mood to flirt with his best mate (or tolerate his dreadful chat-up lines), so he turns to Lily.

“I need to talk to Sirius. About… our Potions project,” he says. James looks decidedly put-out at the change of subject, but Lily nods quickly.

“Right. The Potions project,” she turns to Sirius’ friends, “I’ll catch up with you later.”

Once they’re gone, Lily lets out an exasperated sigh.

“Could that have been any more suspicious?”

“I think Prongs was too busy looking in my beautiful emerald eyes to notice anything,” Sirius assures her. He briefly thinks about telling Lily about Davey Gudgeon, but he’s not sure that the potential violence that might ensue is worth it.

She scoffs before he can mention it. “The Potions project is coming along fine, in case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t,” Sirius says, pulling her letter out of his book bag, and holding it out in front of him, “I believe this belongs to you.”

Lily takes it, smiling widely. “Groovy!”

She opens the letter up in front of him and reads through it quickly, giggling about something when she gets to the end. Sirius thinks it’s a bit jarring to hear himself  _ giggle _ , and he’s about to tell her as much when she glances up at him, creasing a corner of the paper idly.

“I don’t have anything for you,” she says, almost apologetically. Sirius crosses his arms stiffly. He’s not exactly a fan of pity, least of all from Lily Evans.

“No reason you should,” he tells her. She straightens up a bit, looking off into the distance over his shoulder.

“Well… you’re on patrolling duty tonight. Don’t be late.”

Sirius gives her a mock salute. “On it,” he says, “and I read the schedule, you don’t have to remind me.” Lily meets his eyes.

“Just making sure.”

=|=

No matter how many times he tries to right it, Lily’s stupid badge won’t sit straight. It’s as if the badge knows that it isn’t meant for Sirius, and is exacting its revenge by hanging sideways, but he’s nearly impaled himself twice trying to set it right, so he’s given up entirely by the time he gets to the dungeons.

He’s supposed to be outside of Gryffindor Tower, watching for anyone out after curfew, but he knows an opportunity when he sees one, and he’s got a mission.

Sneaking around Hogwarts with a rare invisibility cloak is definitely something Sirius took for granted, he realizes as he peers down an empty corridor, but there’s no one around.

He’s almost disappointed when he gets to the Potions classroom without running into anyone. He’s even less impressed when the door opens with a simple  _ Alohomora _ .

As if it isn’t sinister enough in the daytime, the classroom looks particularly eerie now, even after Sirius lights his wand. He’s almost expecting Slughorn to be at his desk, but the old professor is nowhere to be found. Sirius found an empty satchel in Lily’s trunk earlier, and he hopes it’ll be big enough as he pulls out her list of ingredients.

He finds asphodel root and boomslang skin easily, but the greatest disadvantage of being Lily Evans becomes clear to him when he realizes that Slughorn stores his wampus hair on the highest shelf of his ingredients cupboard. It feels as though the glass canister is looking down at him smugly, waiting for him to fail. Sirius raises his wand.

“ _ Wingardium Leviosa _ ,” he murmurs. The canister begins to levitate unsteadily, bobbing up and down through the air as Sirius lifts it off of its shelf. Even first-year charms have gotten more difficult ever since the body-switching started. It’s like Lily’s wand resists everything Sirius tries to do…

He tries to concentrate on the canister, but it isn’t long before he loses control and it plummets to the ground with an ear-splitting  _ crash _ that leaves Sirius’ heart pounding as he surveys the damage in front of him. He casts a glance towards the door of the classroom before squatting down and grabbing a handful of hair off the floor, careful not to touch the shattered remains of the canister.

His repairing charm works better than his attempt at levitation, but Sirius doesn’t dare try  _ Wingardium Leviosa _ again. He stashes the canister near some flobberworm mucus and moves on to the rest of his list.

Six billywig stings and one small jar of cobra fangs later, Sirius considers his expedition more or less complete. He’s only missing two items on the list, but he highly doubts that Old Slug’s got Venomous Tentacula juice lying around (on account of it being literal poison, if Sirius’ five years of Herbology have taught him anything), and…

Sirius squints at the last item on the list, hoping that he’s read it wrong even when the dread begins to set in. The words are written in small letters, like they’re trying to hide from something, but they’re unmistakable.

_ One drop of unicorn blood. _

How had he not noticed before? How-

“It came from here!” The voice comes from the corridor, and Sirius figures that his luck has finally run out. He crumples up his list and shoves it in the satchel hurriedly, listening to the nearby footsteps.

Sirius glances around him, looking for anything he can use to escape. Normally, he’d try a disillusionment charm, but he doesn’t trust Lily’s wand—he isn’t even an animagus in Lily’s body…

“Why’s the Potions door open?” The voice sounds familiar.

Sirius panics, and ducks under Slughorn’s desk, holding the satchel to his chest as he waits.

“Do you think someone’s in here?” It takes a moment for Sirius to recognize it, but the voice definitely belongs to James.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Peter’s voice answers, “we should’ve brought the map.”

“Moony said it’s not ready yet—we still need to finish drawing up the seventh floor.”

“Right, well, can we get out of here? I hate the dungeons at night.”

“I’ll have to agree with you on that one—the Potions classroom creeps me out.”

“There’s a reason I didn’t take N.E.W.T level Potions, Prongs.”

“You made the right choice, mate.”

Sirius hears shuffling as their footsteps and voices get quieter, taking a deep breath when he can no longer hear them. He counts to ten before getting out from under Slughorn’s desk. He, like James and Peter, is eager to get out of the dungeons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> groOvy


	9. potions and mirrors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Lily watches uneasily as Slughorn paces calmly around the classroom, and she isn’t sure if it’s just her imagination, but she swears that he keeps leaning towards her and Sirius and peering into their cauldron, like he’s suspicious of its contents."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey i dont think ive said this yet so uhhh...... fuck jk rowling! enjoy the chapter!

Lily watches uneasily as Slughorn paces calmly around the classroom, and she isn’t sure if it’s just her imagination, but she swears that he keeps leaning towards her and Sirius and peering into their cauldron, like he’s suspicious of its contents. She waits until the professor roams to the other side of the classroom before daring to speak to Sirius.

“I finished my Transfiguration homework at lun-”

“Take this, before Sluggy notices,” Sirius cuts her off, shoving something at her under their table that she struggles to grab, but soon identifies as a designer satchel her aunt gave her for her fifteenth birthday.

“What…”

“I nicked most of the ingredients last night,” Sirius mutters lowly, “they’re in the bag.” Lily can think of half a dozen more convenient ways to execute this trade-off, but she figures that lecturing Sirius is a lost cause and slips the satchel into his large leather book bag.

“Did you get the Venomous Tentacula juice?” She asks. If she doesn’t add the juice by Thursday, they’ll have to wait another month before the antidote will be ready… or maybe it’ll become poison. The brewing instructions aren’t particularly clear.

“Couldn’t find it—shockingly poison isn’t readily available in the Potions classroom,” Sirius answers. Lily can’t help feeling a bit surprised by this—Hogwarts seems like a deathtrap sometimes, and Dumbledore isn’t exactly known for strict adherence to safety regulations. Lily can’t even imagine trying to explain moving staircases to any rational muggle government.

“There are Venomous Tentaculas in greenhouse five,” she says, wondering how many muggle health and safety guidelines could be broken by the mere presence of the plants. Sirius doesn’t seem eager to deal with them, but he gives her a curt nod. His hair (well,  _ her  _ hair, actually), is in a neat plait, and Lily thinks that Mary must’ve done it—she calls plaiting a form of art. Lily tries to picture Sirius trying to sit still while Mary tugs at his hair, but her thoughts are interrupted by Sirius himself, who looks…

Well— _ serious _ .

“Evans,” he glances at Professor Slughorn, who’s admiring Dorcas’ potion, “on the list… you wrote that we need a drop of  _ unicorn blood _ ,” he lowers his voice to a whisper for the last two words, “we can’t use it.”

Lily begins stirring their potion clockwise. “It’s in the recipe,” she tells him. She knows that killing a unicorn is dangerous and illegal, but just about everything they’ve been doing for the last few days has been those exact things.

“Well,” he says, “then there’s got to be some other way. A substitute.”

Lily holds back a scoff. “I’m not risking that—one wrong move with this antidote and we’re both dead.” Sirius doesn’t relent.

“It’s  _ unicorn blood _ ,” he hisses.

“It’s  _ one drop _ ,” Lily reminds him, “that isn’t enough to kill it.”

“We’re not just going to find one drop of unicorn blood lying around, Evans,” Sirius mutters as Slughorn wrinkles his nose at a nearby Ravenclaw’s cauldron. Lily gets an idea.

“Sirius-”

“No. I’m not planning on harming a fucking unicorn! Even my family—who are  _ evil _ , by the way—don’t mess with that shit. It’s bad news.” His voice is hushed, but his face is turning red, and Lily wonders briefly if that’s really what her face looks like when she gets angry.

“Look,” she says, leaning in a bit when Slughorn passes their table, “being in the Slug Club has taught me something.” Sirius raises an eyebrow, seemingly unimpressed. She remembers that he and Potter had been invited to a Slug Club meeting back in first year, but they called it a load of rubbish and never showed up. Lily considered not attending, but Severus convinced her to go in the end. Now she sits as far away from him as possible and tries to avoid eye contact.

“What has the magnificent Slug taught you?” Sirius asks, effectively cutting off her train of thought. She sits up, pushing all thoughts related to Snape to the back of her mind.

“Right. Here’s the thing,” Lily says quietly, “Slughorn’s… kind of shady.”

Sirius frowns. “You mean… you think that-”

“If anyone has secret unicorn blood stashed away in their office, it’s him.” Lily watches Slughorn out of the corner of her eye, strolling merrily to the front of the classroom. Just one look in his office tells her that the professor has definitely violated the ban on experimental breeding, among other things. Sirius’ eyes flicker between her and Slughorn, before he sighs in reluctant agreement.

“When do you need it?”

Lily runs through the antidote’s recipe in her head—she’s practically memorized it at this point. The unicorn blood is the last ingredient, but the finished antidote needs to be heated for two full days before consumption… “Monday.”

Sirius nods. “Far out.”

=|=

After dinner, Lily finds herself blissfully alone in the boys’ dormitory, feeling a sort of peace she hasn’t experienced in days. Being around Sirius’ friends is genuinely exhausting—even Remus isn’t as calm and well-mannered as he appears, and when he told Lily that he had to study for a Herbology exam in the library, she couldn’t help being relieved. Between that, Peter’s History of Magic class, and Potter’s last-minute Quidditch practice, Lily has some time to read  _ A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration _ without any distractions. The assigned reading is unbearably long, and Professor McGonagall doesn’t seem keen on giving any of her N.E.W.T students a break, but that’s not what’s on Lily’s mind. The sixth year Gryffindors happen to share their Transfiguration class with Slytherins, and earlier today, everytime Lily turned around, she caught Snape glaring at her. She can’t shake the malignant glint in his eyes from her memory—he looked  _ murderous _ . She’s never seen that kind of hate come from Severus, not even when Potter would harass him the year before (which he stopped doing this fall). She can’t even imagine what Sirius could’ve done to warrant that resentment.

Lily’s staring uselessly at chapter twenty-four of her textbook when she hears a voice. At first, she thinks that it must be Remus at the door, but the sound seems to be coming from Sirius’ trunk of all places—almost as if there’s someone stuck inside.

Lily narrows her eyes at the trunk from her spot on Sirius’ bed; the thing was devoid of life just this morning, and Lily can’t imagine what could possibly be in there, but one can never be too sure at Hogwarts. She sets  _ A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration _ aside, snatching Sirius’ wand from his bedside table and tiptoeing out of bed.

She holds her breath as she approaches the trunk, which looks rather unoffending, apart from the noise coming from inside. Lily stares at it for a moment, before swiftly undoing the latch and flinging it open, wand pointed defensively in front of her.

But nothing happens. Until-

“Padfoot?”

Lily lowers her wand a bit, squinting at the trunk and trying to identify the source of the familiar voice.

“ _ Down here _ !” Lily follows the voice cautiously until she finds…

Potter. Or an image of him. She thinks that he must be in some kind of moving photograph at first, but when she picks it up, it’s heavy, and definitely not paper. It appears to be… a mirror?

“Pads, what’re you staring at?” Potter’s wearing his Quidditch uniform in the mirror—his glasses are askew and there’s sweat dripping down his forehead, but the look on his face is one of pure joy. It’s almost… charming?

“Nothing,” Lily says, but her mind is elsewhere. A two-way mirror—she hates to admit it, but the idea is genius. They must’ve bound some kind of modified revealing charm to the mirrors, or-

“Right. Well, I’m just thinking that you’ve got some free time at the moment, and it would be a shame if Ravenclaw’s Quidditch captain fell down a flight of stairs the night before the match…” Lily rolls her eyes, and Potter chuckles, “I’m kidding—we don’t need sabotage to beat Ravenclaw. I mean, if it was Slytherin, then maybe-”

“For the love of Merlin,” Lily blurts out, “is Quidditch all you think about?”

Potter seems a bit offended. “No,” he says quietly. Lily feels slightly guilty, but his Quidditch talk has been driving her insane as of late.

“Name two other things,” she challenges. He quirks an eyebrow at her through the mirror, before clearing his throat.

“Dunno what’s got your knickers in a twist, but alright,” he mutters, “two things… I’m definitely going to fail Thursday’s Potions exam, and,” he pauses for a moment, “did you hear that the minister’s tightening security on Azkaban?” Lily feels embarrassed when she shakes her head—she usually gets her news from Dorcas. “I think the ministry’s scared… this war isn’t ending anytime soon, is it?” Potter’s looking at Lily like he hopes she’ll tell her he’s wrong, but he isn’t.

“Looks like it,” she says, feeling a bit stunned. Lily spends most of her free time (not that she has much) worrying about death eaters and Voldemort, whose name she rarely hears anymore, as people have started calling him  _ You Know Who _ and  _ He Who Must Not Be Named _ —last year she heard Severus call him the Dark Lord, which unnerves her more than she cares to admit. She never considered that Potter’s given much of it a second thought, but the concern on his face tells her otherwise.

“So, y’know, I’d rather talk about Quidditch right now, if that’s alright with you.”

“Go for it, Prongs.”

Lily lets him ramble about strategies and formations for a few minutes until Marlene’s voice yells something about their break being over and Potter disappears from the frame. She places the mirror back in the trunk gently, before grabbing her textbook off the bed, trying to find where she left off. She starts to read, but the silence of the dormitory is a bit distracting, ironically, and she digs around in her pockets until she finds a piece of parchment to stuff in the book as a makeshift bookmark.

Just as she’s about to give up on  _ A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration _ , something catches her eye from across the room. A record player is sitting on Remus’ nightstand, so ordinary that Lily almost feels homesick. She approaches it and finds a record already on the turntable, like it’s waiting for her. The words  _ Deep Purple: Made in Japan _ are printed proudly on the vinyl, which takes Lily aback. She never took Remus for a fan of hard rock.

She puts the needle on the record and starts it, and for a moment, she doesn’t expect it to work. The magic of Hogwarts is so overwhelming that the idea of something as muggle as a record player functioning inside the castle seems strange. But then the sound of a crowd cheering fills the dormitory before being drowned out by a drum beat, and Lily grins.

Oddly enough, the blaring music feels more fitting for studying than silence, and Lily lets it play while she crosses the room to hop back onto Sirius’ bed. She opens her textbook, and her bookmark slides down, landing on her lap. Lily realizes that it’s the reply letter she wrote to her parents the day before, and puts it on Sirius’ bedside table, promising to herself that she’ll send it off before the end of the day. For now, she figures she should focus on transfiguration.

=|=

The door creaks when it opens, and Lily’s eyes snap open as she sits up, hearing a soft  _ thump _ as  _ A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration _ tumbles to the floor. She doesn’t remember falling asleep, but she reckons that a boring passage in her textbook and a lull in the music must’ve done the trick. The record’s still playing, a guitar solo blasting loud as ever, and Lily wonders how she managed to sleep through it all.

“Sirius?” Lily turns to the doorway, suddenly very awake as Remus steps into the room, glancing between her and the record player thoughtfully. Lily offers him a sheepish smile while he closes the door behind him, taking a few steps towards his bed and stopping the record. “Didn’t realize Deep Purple puts you to sleep,” Remus says, shaking his head in amusement, “next time you wake me up in the middle of the night, I’ll know what to do.”

“McGonagall’s assigned reading helped,” Lily informs him, “how was the studying?”

Remus groans. “It was fine until Madam Pince threw me out for coughing too loud.”

“What were you thinking, Remus? Coughing is a first-level offense!” Lily says, which makes Remus laugh. She suddenly remembers her letter, and hopes that curfew hasn’t started. “What time is it?”

“Quarter to eight,” Remus answers, and Lily lets out a small sigh of relief, taking her letter from the bedside table. She steps on her textbook on her way out of the dorm, muttering a quick “be back soon” to Remus as she leaves.

The walk to the owlery is short and the corridors are practically empty. Lily thinks of the antidote, still bubbling in the cupboard of that unused classroom on the third floor. She has an urge to check on it, despite the fact that there’s nothing for her to do—she may be Slughorn’s top student, but this potion is unlike anything she’s done in class. For one thing, she can’t work on it during the day, since any amount of sunlight renders the antidote useless at best during the first week of brewing. Not to mention the fact that she has to use black flames, which are difficult enough to procure without the added challenge of using Sirius’ wand, which has a tendency to backfire.

Lily forces herself to quit thinking about it, because then she’ll start thinking about what happens if she brews the antidote incorrectly, and then she’ll have to face the possibility of being stuck in Sirius Black’s body for another month (if she’s lucky—and if the potion doesn’t kill them), and then-

The squawking of nearby owls interrupts her stress-induced inner monologue, which Lily is thankful for, and she wastes no time entering the owlery. The owls quiet down when she steps inside, and a few dozen yellow eyes turn to her at once, watching her intently. Lily has a funny feeling that they know something’s off about her, but she doesn’t think much of it. Eventually she coerces a school owl into letting her tie her letter to its leg, and the tawny flies out the window the moment Lily’s done.

Lily turns around, sidestepping a pile of rodent bones, and finds herself face to face with someone that has an uncanny resemblance to the person she’s been seeing in the mirror for the past few days, but it isn’t Sirius.

Regulus Black blinks back at her, scowling and running a finger along his envelope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i really couldn't stop myself from shoving my music taste into this fic huh (made in japan is hella good tho check it out)


	10. gryffindor vs ravenclaw

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Regulus Black arches an eyebrow. “Sending a letter to my mother,” he puts the slightest emphasis on the word my, “I didn’t abandon my family to play house with blood-traitors, remember?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhhhhhhh so it's been like 3 (?) weeks????? or something?? (nvm i just checked and it's been a full month boys!) yea sorry about that lmao... worst part is that i've had this chapter done for like a week but i didn't like it that much (but here i am posting it anyway) so if you also don't like it.... that's my bad b! but enjoy anyway<3

Regulus looks like Sirius, if Sirius cut his hair and shrunk a couple inches, but there’s something cold and unapproachable about him that makes it hard to believe the two grew up together. Lily’s never seen Sirius look as detached as Regulus does now—while Sirius’ grey eyes remind her of a storm, Regulus’ are unreadable. If it wasn’t for his pronounced frown, she’d think he doesn’t recognize her.

“What are you doing here?” Lily asks stupidly. Regulus Black arches an eyebrow.

“Sending a letter to my mother,” he puts the slightest emphasis on the word  _ my _ , “I didn’t abandon my family to play house with blood-traitors, remember?”

In a strange way, he reminds Lily of Petunia—always going for the lowest blow, all while maintaining a very proper demeanor. There’s an understated cruelty in Petunia’s unrelenting politeness, and Lily wonders if Sirius also wishes that Regulus would just yell at him for once, instead of pretending he doesn’t exist.

“Right,” Lily mutters. She can’t think of anything else to say. Regulus watches her for a second, before stepping around her to look for his owl. The tension is palpable, but foreign, and Lily feels far more out of place than when she’s spent time with Sirius’ friends or gone to his classes. All she can bring herself to do is walk towards the exit of the owlery.

When she gets to the door, she hears an owl hoot and wings flapping, before Regulus speaks.

“You made the wrong choice, Sirius.”

Lily doesn’t turn around as she leaves, letting the door swing shut behind her and wondering if she should even mention this to Sirius tomorrow.

=|=

As it turns out, Lily doesn’t have much time to discuss Sirius’ family with him the next day, as there’s something else that requires her constant and thorough attention. Unfortunately for her, it’s not the high-matinence and potentially lethal antidote she’s brewing, but the surprisingly needy James Potter.

Potter spends most of the entire day talking Lily’s ear off about point totals and the specific strengths and weaknesses of every player on Ravenclaw’s team (including their reserves), and even when he can’t talk, he won’t stop bouncing his leg nervously or ruffling his hair.

Just when Lily thinks that she’ll get some peace during the Defense Against the Dark Arts lecture, Professor Pendergrass announces that they’ll be having a practical lesson today and sends the tables and chairs to the side of the classroom with one flick of his wand.

“To review non-verbal shield charms,” Pendergrass begins, “you will split into pairs and take turns protecting yourselves against a knockback jinx— _ only _ a knockback jinx.” He looks straight at Lily when he says the last part, like he’s expecting her to start flinging bat-bogey hexes around (which does, in fairness, seem like something Sirius would do). Before Lily can search for a partner, Potter grabs her and pulls her to a corner of the classroom, and Lily resigns herself to another class full of Quidditch talk.

“The thing is,” Potter says as a pair of Hufflepuffs start the exercise beside them, “we could lose the game and still win the Quidditch Cup, but we still need to score at  _ least _ -”

“James,” Lily cuts him off, closing her eyes and trying to contain her annoyance, “can we please just do the lesson?” When she opens her eyes, Potter’s hair is sticking up in the front and he’s staring at her like he’s only just realized that they’re in class.

“Oh, right,” he mutters, straightening his back, “do you wanna do defense or offense?”

“Offense,” Lily says without missing a beat. Potter nods, but she can tell he’s still in Quidditch-land. He backs up a few paces and raises his wand.

“Whenever you’re ready, Pads.”

Lily points Sirius’ wand at him, hoping it won’t fail her. She takes a deep breath, visualizing the direction of the spell like she used to do back in first year to focus. She imagines the path of the spell—towards Potter, bouncing off of his shield and fizzling away…

“ _ Flipendo _ !”

For a split-second, Potter looks like a deer in the headlights, before-

_ Bang! _

Potter’s thrown backwards—he goes airborne for a few seconds before landing squarely on his arse, right in front of Sirius, who instantly abandons his own knockback jinx to laugh at him. Potter smirks at him and says something Lily doesn’t catch, which makes Sirius’ partner—Davey Gudgeon, of all people—shoot him a glare. Potter chuckles and hastily gets to his feet, pushing his glasses up from where they’ve slipped down his nose. He jogs back to Lily, who notices that his ears have turned red.

“Well, that was the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to me all week,” he mumbles, “thanks, mate.” Lily rolls her eyes.

“Not my fault that you didn’t even try to put up a shield,” she tells him.

“You could’ve given me some kind of warning!”

Lily tries not to laugh at his baffled tone. “You’re right—actual dark wizards are known for warning people before they attack. They’re polite like that.”

Potter just pouts at her. “You’re mean,” he says, “and I’m distracted—how are we supposed to do classwork when there’s a Quidditch match-” he stops his train of thought, “and you look like you’re ready to strangle me.”

Lily sighs, but she can’t find herself staying mad at him. “Look,” she puts her hands on Potter’s shoulders, which seems to surprise him as much as she’s surprised herself, “for someone with an extremely large ego, you don’t have enough confidence in yourself… you can do this. And even if you lose, it’s not the end of the world. Okay?” Potter nods, and a strand of hair falls into his eyes. “Good. Now are you going to focus or will I get the pleasure of kicking your ass again?”

Lily’s pep talk seems to help, somehow, and Potter doesn’t falter with his shielding charm for the rest of the lesson. In fact, he seems almost relaxed for the rest of their classes, and Lily manages not to hear the word  _ Quidditch _ until he has to leave after dinner to get ready for the match itself.

Lily’s in the common room when Gryffindors start heading towards the pitch, and she’s about to follow when someone bursts through the portrait hole, panting.

It takes a second for Lily to identify her own face, because there’s about half a dozen small cuts on one side, and a purple bruise on the other. Her hair’s tangled and there’s dirt covering every inch of her ripped-up uniform.

Sirius grins as he stumbles over to Lily, far too chipper for someone who looks like they’ve just been attacked by an army of squirrels. When he’s in front of her, he pulls a vial out from behind his back and holds it up proudly.

“I got the Venomous Tentacula juice!” Sirius exclaims. No one seems to be paying either of them any attention, but Lily still shushes him. She takes the vial when he hands it to her and hides it in the pockets of her robes.

“You look like hell,” she tells Sirius. He doesn’t seem bothered by her evaluation.

“You should see the other guy,” he says, which makes Lily laugh in spite of herself, “now let’s go watch some Quidditch!” Lily grabs his arm before he can turn back towards the portrait hole.

“Not when you look like  _ that _ ,” Lily waits for the last of the Gryffindors to leave the common room before pointing her wand at Sirius. “ _ Episkey _ .” To Lily’s surprise, the cuts quickly heal themselves and his bruise fades a little, but Sirius doesn’t seem too happy about it.

“How come your spells turn out perfectly but your wand wants to sabotage every bloody thing I do?” He grumbles.

“My wand’s probably harder than yours. I mean- more rigid.” Lily steels herself for an innuendo, but Sirius doesn’t seem fazed by her wording. She wonders if purebloods even notice the countless double-entendres of the wizarding world.

“Makes sense,” Sirius says, as Lily fixes the rips in his clothes and picks leaves out of his hair. She takes a step back and examines her own body.

“That’ll do for now, I guess,” she mutters. Sirius doesn’t waste any time hurrying out of the common room, and Lily basks in a moment of silence before following suit.

The stands are already crowded by the time Lily gets to the Quidditch pitch, but Remus and Peter managed to save her a spot in the front row of the Gryffindor section. The commentator, a fourth year Slytherin, begins to announce the teams as Lily sits down. When Potter’s name is announced, Lily sees him do a flip on his broom before realizing that he has to shake hands with the Ravenclaw captain. Madam Hooch blows a whistle, and Lily suddenly wishes that she brought a book, or at least something to eat. She likes Quidditch just as much as the next witch or wizard, but honestly it isn’t terribly interesting unless the snitch is caught or someone gets hit by a bludger. Not to mention that it’s practically impossible to know when the game will end—it’s times like these that Lily misses regular football. She remembers trying to explain Quidditch to her parents while watching the last FIFA world cup—needless to say, it only confused them.

Ravenclaw gets a head start at the beginning of the game, but their lead doesn’t last long. Gryffindor pulls ahead within twenty minutes, to the dismay of the commentator, who sounds less enthused with every goal. Potter’s a flashy flier, and Lily starts to feel nauseated if she looks at him for too long, so she focuses on the other players—which is difficult, because Potter seems to be earning the most points. Lily fights the urge to doze off, and manages to stay alert by the time the snitch is caught by Gryffindor.

She stands up and joins the Gryffindors in their obnoxious cheering, and she can’t help smiling when she sees Madam Hooch hand Potter the Quidditch Cup. He looks dazed and a bit tired, but the joy on his face is obvious even from Lily’s place in the stands.

“You know what this means,” Peter shouts when the cheers begin to die down, “party in the common room!”

=|=

Peter wasn’t wrong. It only took about fifteen minutes to turn the Gryffindor common room into what Lily imagines American uni parties would look like if they had chocolate frogs and a very intense game of Gobstones. Somehow, Remus and Peter manage to sneak in firewhiskey, so it isn’t long until the sixth and seventh years are hammered and the younger students are ordered back to their dorms by Prefects.

Lily doesn’t want to risk blowing her cover, so she sticks to her butterbeer, unlike Sirius, who doesn’t seem to share her concerns. He’s on the other side of the common room, dancing drunkenly with Mary while holding a half-empty bottle of what looks to be giggle water (Lily can’t even begin to imagine how he got ahold of that stuff), but Lily doesn’t get the opportunity to keep an eye on him, because Potter steps in front of her, effectively blocking her view. He’s changed out of his Quidditch uniform, and is now wearing a white button-down, though it’s buttoned wrong and his tie is loose and lopsided. Somewhere between the game and now, he’s managed to get red and gold face paint smeared across his cheeks in what Lily assumes must’ve started out as some sort of pattern but has now deteriorated into a formless mess. His hair is unruly as ever, but he doesn’t seem to be touching it as much as he usually does.

“Padfoot,” he says, and Lily can smell the firewhiskey on his breath, “I’m so glad we’re mates, yeah? And- and I’m  _ so _ glad you and Moony are still mates after Snivelly and, y’know,” he leans in close, like he’s got a secret, “the  _ furry little problem _ …” Lily knows that “Snivelly” is supposed to mean Snape, but she has no idea what this  _ furry little problem _ is. Except for the fact that it apparently has something to do with Remus… Lily looks over her shoulder and sees him on a poofy armchair, but before gears can start turning, Potter speaks again. “Hey, er- can I be serious? Wait, no,  _ you’re _ Sirius!” He cracks up at his own joke, and despite the fact that it isn’t remotely funny, Lily feels the urge to laugh with him. It takes him a moment to calm down, but when he does, confusion replaces his glee. “What was I saying?”

“You want to be serious?” Lily offers.

Potter nods, his face lighting up as he remembers his train of thought. “Serious! I wanted to ask you if, um- if you think it’s actually worth it.”

Lily furrows her brow, trying to make sense of what he’s saying. “Do I think  _ what _ is actually worth it?” Potter tilts his head to the side, like he’s surprised that she didn’t read his mind.

“Evans. I mean, trying to ask her out, ‘cause she hates my guts, right? But I’ve been thinkin’... if I try to be more mature and all that, is it so crazy that she could fancy me back? She’s so…” He turns to look at Sirius, who’s laughing hysterically while twirling Mary to the beat, “I don’t think she knows how much she means to me, and I can’t miss my opportunity to tell her how brilliant she is.” Lily feels her face heat up with embarrassment, but Potter doesn’t notice.

“I think you’ve had too much to drink,” Lily says quietly.

“Next thing you know, Prongs’ll be reciting poetry about her  _ dazzling green eyes _ ,” Peter materializes behind Potter, lightly elbowing him in the ribs.

“That was  _ one time _ ,” Potter replies, pulling a pained face, and Lily chokes on thin air, “besides, don’t you have your own infatuation to worry about?” He nods his head towards a seventh year blonde Lily’s never spoken to, and Peter follows his gaze before disappearing into the masses. Lily suppresses a smile when she looks at Potter.

“Remind me,” she says, “what kind of poetry was this? Are we talking sonnets or limericks-”

“Why must you ridicule my unrequited love?” Potter wines. The word  _ love _ just about fries Lily’s brain, and she can’t help but stare at Potter, unable to come up with a response. She’s never felt so confused about him, and being inside of Sirius’ body is hardly any help. Eventually, she forces herself to form words.

“Go to bed, Potter,” she manages at last, trying not to stare at the way that the corners of his eyes crinkle when he smiles. She usually doesn’t pay attention to his eyes, since it’s hard to see past the glasses, but now…

Well… shit.

This isn’t good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm just gonna let y'all know that i totally haven't even started the next chapter so it might be a while (sometimes i sit down to write and then rewatch a full season of buffy the vampire slayer instead whoops) but as of now this fic isn't dead!!

**Author's Note:**

> btw imma try to post weekly until i finish or get bored


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